Germany’s AfD up in arms as fourth regional branch labelled extremist

Regional leaders of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) voiced their anger on Thursday over the classification of another of the party’s state branches as a confirmed far-right extremist group.

The reaction came as authorities released on Thursday a redacted version of the 142-page asssessment that classified the AfD’s branch in Brandenburg, which surrounds Berlin, as a confirmed far-right extremist group.

Brandenburg’s domestic intelligence chief Wilfried Peters said the party advocated for people who do not “belong to the German mainstream” to leave the country.

“This is about discrimination and exclusion,” Peters said during the presentation of the report outlying the justifications for the classification.

Brandenburg Interior Minister René Wilke said the far-right party has shown contempt for state institutions.

Brandenburg’s AfD parliamentary leader Hans-Christoph Berndt slammed the assessment, which was only released after a lengthy legal dispute and is based on findings by the domestic intelligence, as arbitrary.

Berndt, addressing the state parliament in Potsdam, described the domestic intelligence agency as a “danger to democracy,” accusing it of “making judgements” instead of weighing matters in a neutral manner.

The Brandenburg branch of the anti-immigrant party is its fourth regional division to be classified as confirmed far-right extremist following the AfD branches in Thuringia, Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt – all states that were part of the former Communist East Germany.