An administrative court in Cologne has ordered Germany’s domestic intelligence agency to stop referring to the Alternative for Germany (AfD) as “certified right-wing extremist” until the legality of that designation can be determined.
The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) classified the AfD as “certified right-wing extremist” (gesichert rechtsextrem) in May 2025. The party promptly filed an emergency injunction. Thursday’s decision is the first preliminary legal judgment in the case.
Judges found evidence of potentially unconstitutional statements and policies within the AfD — including demands to ban the Muslim call to prayer or minarets — but said there was not sufficient proof to characterize the party as a whole as extremist. “Following examination under the summary procedure, it cannot currently be established that the applicant, as a whole, is dominated by the positions discussed above,” the court said.
The injunction bars the BfV from using the “certified extremist” label for the AfD while the court reaches a final ruling; no date was given for that full hearing. It also prevents the agency from expanding powers tied to that highest level of surveillance. The BfV said it will continue to monitor the AfD at the middle tier — as a suspected extreme-right case rather than as a certified one.
The AfD is Germany’s largest opposition party and, in nationwide polling, the country’s second-largest party. Youth groups and individual members have openly expressed views considered unconstitutional in Germany, and parts of the party have distinguished between “ethnic Germans” and Germans with migrant roots, fueling calls for a ban.
Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt said the federal government took note of the initial ruling and that it was time to “wait for the main hearing.” The legal spokeswoman for the Social Democrats, Carmen Wegge, disagreed with the court’s decision and reiterated her party’s view that the AfD is anti-constitutional; the SPD indicated it intends to continue pursuing steps toward a possible ban before Germany’s constitutional court.
AfD leaders celebrated the Cologne ruling. Co-chair Alice Weidel called it a “big win” for the party and for democracy, saying the court had indirectly halted those who want to outlaw the AfD. Co-chair Tino Chrupalla described the verdict as a first-stage victory and said it would energize campaigners in Baden-Württemberg and Rhineland-Palatinate ahead of regional elections. The party’s lawyer, Ralf Höcker, said the emergency hearing showed that in a democracy it is not sufficient to point to a few extreme members to ban an entire party and that a ban was “off the table.”
Although an intelligence designation is not the same as a legal ban — Germany has only outlawed political parties twice in the post-war era, and not since the 1950s — such a classification could be used as part of any future case seeking a prohibition. The debate intensified after the BfV’s move in May.
The AfD and some supporters, including voices in the United States, criticized the intelligence designation as undemocratic and an attack on free speech.
Edited by: Jenipher Camino Gonzalez
