A German court on Tuesday started appeal proceedings in the case of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party’s classification as a suspected extremist group.
Germany’s intelligence services had classified both the party and its youth organization, Junge Alternative (JA), as suspected right-wing extremist groups.
A lower administrative court in Cologne, where the intelligence services are located, confirmed this assessment in 2022, allowing the office to monitor the party as a suspected case.
The Higher Administrative Court of North Rhine-Westphalia is now to decide whether the earlier assessment is legal.
The two party leaders, Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla, did not appear at the court in Münster on the first day of the hearing, citing the lower house of parliament’s session week in Berlin.
The court has scheduled a second day of hearings for Wednesday.
It was still unclear on Tuesday morning when a verdict is expected.On Tuesday morning, the party’s lawyer had called for a delay, arguing it had not been possible to deal with the 4,200 pages of documents and 116 hours of video material submitted in January.
The court denied this request. The start of the hearing was accompanied by protests against the AfD in the centre of Münster.
The police had cordoned off a large area of the court building.
In the last months, thousands of people rallied against far-right extremism and the Alternative for Germany (AfD) political party.
The wave of protests was prompted by revelations in news reports that AfD officials joined a private meeting in Potsdam in November with far-right extremists to discuss strategies to force immigrants out of the country.
The AfD’s signature issue is a hard-line anti-immigration stance, and the party is profiting from increased concern among many German voters over rising numbers seeking asylum in the country.The party is polling nationally at around 20%, amid high dissatisfaction with Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s three-party coalition.
