Germany's domestic intelligence service on Friday designated the rising far-right party AfD as an extremist group, handing authorities greater powers to monitor it and fuelling calls for it to be banned.
The anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) swiftly slammed the move as a "heavy blow" to democracy, just months after they won second place in national polls, and vowed to mount a legal challenge.
The BfV domestic intelligence agency, which had already designated several local AfD branches as right-wing extremist groups, said it decided to give the entire party the label due to its attempts to "undermine the free, democratic" order in Germany.
It cited in particular the "xenophobic, anti-minority, Islamophobic and anti-Muslim statements made by leading party officials".
The classification gives authorities greater powers to monitor the party by lowering the barriers for such steps as intercepting telephone calls and deploying undercover agents.
The new designation also revived calls to ban the party, heightening political tensions in Europe's top economy where conservative Friedrich Merz is set to take power next Tuesday at the helm of a coalition government with the centre-left SPD.
Lars Klingbeil, an SPD politician set to become vice-chancellor and finance minister in the incoming coalition, said the government would examine the possibility of banning the AfD.
"They want a different country, they want to destroy our democracy. And we must take that very seriously," he told tabloid Bild, although he added the coalition would not make any hasty decisions.
Incoming interior minister Alexander Dobrindt added that the spy agency's move "inevitably means there will be further observation of the AfD".
The AfD's co-leaders Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla charged in a statement that their party was "being publicly discredited and criminalised", and that the decision was "clearly politically motivated" -- a claim denied by the outgoing coalition government.
Announcing its decision, the intelligence agency said that the AfD "aims to exclude certain population groups from equal participation in society".
In particular, the AfD does not consider German citizens with a migrant background from countries with large Muslim populations to be "equal members of the German people", it added.
Welter of controversies
The party, founded in 2013, has in recent years surged in popularity by capitalising on growing concern about migration while Germany has suffered from a recession.
It won more than 20 percent of the vote in February's election, a record result and behind only the centre-right CDU/CSU bloc of Merz.
More recent opinion polls have shown the party running neck-and-neck or even slightly ahead of the CDU/CSU alliance.
In a country still haunted by its Nazi past in World War II, establishment parties have vowed not to go into government or work with the AfD.
Merz breached this so-called "firewall" during the election campaign by relying on its support to pass a parliamentary motion demanding tougher immigration measures, sparking widespread anger and nationwide protests.
He has since insisted he will not work with the party as he has formed a coalition with the SPD of outgoing Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
The AfD during the election campaign won the enthusiastic backing of Elon Musk, a tech billionaire and close adviser to US President Donald Trump.
Musk said only the AfD could "save Germany", appeared virtually at one of their rallies via video link and hosted an interview with Weidel on his platform X.
The party has faced frequent controversies. One of its leading members has been convicted for using a banned Nazi slogan and others have been criticised for downplaying atrocities committed by the Nazis.
It has also faced allegations of close ties to Russia, and earlier this week a former aide to an AfD European Parliament lawmaker was charged over suspected spying on behalf of China.
AfD supporter Manuela Spitzwieser, a 54-year-old cleaner from the western city of Duisburg, echoed the claim from the party leadership that the BfV's decision was politically motivated.
"It's totally obvious -- at the moment the AfD is leading in the polls," she told AFP.
If an outright ban on the party did eventually come to pass, she predicted civil unrest "like they had in France with the yellow vests... or we would found a new party which would go through the roof at the next election".
By Sam REEVES, AFP
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