An administrative court in Cologne has ordered Germany’s domestic intelligence agency to stop calling the Alternative for Germany (AfD) “certified right‑wing extremist” while the legality of that designation is decided. The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) gave the AfD the designation in May 2025; the party immediately sought an emergency injunction and Thursday’s ruling is the first preliminary judicial decision in the dispute.
Judges said they had found evidence of statements and policy proposals within the AfD that could be unconstitutional — for example, calls to ban the Muslim call to prayer or minarets — but concluded that, on a summary basis, there was not yet sufficient proof to treat the party as a whole as dominated by those positions. The court wrote that “it cannot currently be established that the applicant, as a whole, is dominated by the positions discussed above.”
The injunction prevents the BfV from using the “certified extremist” label for the AfD while the case proceeds and bars the agency from expanding powers tied to that highest level of surveillance. The BfV said it will continue to monitor the party at the middle tier — classifying it as a suspected extreme‑right case rather than a certified one. No date was announced for the full hearing that will determine the final outcome.
The AfD is Germany’s largest opposition party and polls show it as the country’s second‑largest party. Parts of the party, including youth groups and some individual members, have expressed views widely seen as unconstitutional, and certain factions have drawn distinctions between “ethnic Germans” and Germans with migrant roots — developments that have driven calls for a possible ban.
Federal Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt said the government had taken note of the initial ruling and that it would await the main hearing. The Social Democrats’ legal spokeswoman, Carmen Wegge, disagreed with the court’s decision and reiterated the SPD’s position that the AfD is anti‑constitutional; the party said it would continue pursuing steps that could lead to a ban before Germany’s constitutional court.
AfD leaders welcomed the Cologne decision. Co‑chair Alice Weidel called it a “big win” and said it had blocked efforts to outlaw the party; co‑chair Tino Chrupalla described the ruling as an early victory that would energize regional campaigners. The party’s lawyer said the emergency hearing showed that pointing to some extreme members is not enough in a democracy to justify banning an entire party, and that a ban was “off the table.”
An intelligence designation is not the same as a legal ban: Germany has outlawed political parties only twice in the post‑war era and not since the 1950s. Still, the BfV’s May classification could be used in any future legal case seeking to prohibit the AfD, and the move sharpened debate about free speech, democracy and the limits of state surveillance. The AfD and some supporters, including voices abroad, have criticized the designation as undemocratic and an attack on free expression.