• A German court has allowed domestic intelligence in the state of Hesse to monitor the regional chapter of the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) party as a suspected far-right extremist organization.
• The court ruled that there are “sufficient factual grounds” to suggest that the AfD Hesse regional branch is pursuing aims against the free democratic basic order, justifying the classification as a suspected extremist group and giving domestic intelligence broader monitoring powers.
• The AfD party, which became Germany's biggest opposition party last year, is challenging the extremist classification at the national level, with several regional chapters already classified as confirmed far-right extremist by domestic intelligence agencies.

Another regional branch of the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) party can be labelled a suspected far-right extremist organization, a German court said on Wednesday, giving domestic intelligence in the state of Hesse broader powers to monitor the party.

The domestic intelligence agency in the central state of Hesse, home to Germany's financial hub Frankfurt, classified the regional AfD chapter as a suspected extremist group in 2022, and begun monitoring party members accordingly.

The party took legal action against the label. The administrative court in Wiesbaden first upheld the extremist classification in summary proceedings in 2023.

The court drew similar conclusions in main proceedings, ruling that there are "sufficient factual grounds" to suggest that the AfD Hesse regional branch is pursuing aims that are directed against the free democratic basic order, the court said in a statement on Wednesday.

This justifies classifying the chapter as a suspected extremist group, which gives domestic intelligence broader powers to monitor the party, it said.

During the main hearing, the AfD's lawyer had said that the claimant was convinced that the classification had been made primarily for political reasons.

The co-chair of the AfD in Hesse, Robert Lambrou, had stressed that the AfD was a "bourgeois, conservative, liberal" party, arguing that the aim of the party's legal challenge was to defend against "stigmatization and defamation" by the domestic intelligence service.

The far-right AfD became Germany's biggest opposition party last year when it made unprecedented gains in national elections.

At the national level, the party was classified as a confirmed extremist organization by domestic intelligence last year - a label the party is challenging in court.

Several AfD regional chapters have been classified as confirmed far-right extremist by domestic intelligence agencies.