Alternative for Germany leaders are trying to use the court’s temporary ruling that they can’t be classified as “extremist” to snag broader voter support.
The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) is celebrating a “major victory” in courts after judges in Cologne banned Germany’s domestic intelligence agency from treating the party as a “right-wing extremist group.”
The temporary ruling issued Thursday prevents the BfV agency from using the label it slapped on the AfD in May 2025 — a mostly symbolic decision that nevertheless complicated the party’s efforts to broaden its appeal at home and polish its reputation abroad. AfD co-leader Tino Chrupalla hailed a “great day for democracy,” while his co-head Alice Weidel wrote on X that the ruling “indirectly put a stop to censorship fanatics.”
Weidel has seized on the ruling as evidence the party was unfairly stigmatized and is now using the court’s intervention to support her party’s broader rebranding.
The AfD has shifted steadily rightward since its founding in 2013 as a Euroskeptic force, mobilizing an increasingly radicalized base largely around migration.
Lately, however, Weidel has tried to tone down the rhetoric to make her party more palatable to mainstream conservatives. It is currently moving to ban Kevin Dorow, a board member of its youth organisation, for remarks that “obviously suggested a closeness to National Socialism”, Die Welt reported.
The strategy could test the long-standing firewall that has kept Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s center-right bloc from governing with the far right.
A good electoral result in the state of Baden-Württemberg next week could signal that these efforts are paying off. AfD has not performed well historically in the southwestern state, and its candidates are currently polling in third with 19 percent, much higher than its nine percent result five years ago.
The party also enjoys some momentum in Berlin, where an Insa survey put the AfD in second place with 17 percent — the first time the party has ranked so highly in the city-state, although it is neck and neck with three parties on the left ahead of the elections in September.
The legal fight is far from over, though.
Speaking to Welt TV on Friday, Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt said the AfD “remains a suspected case” — a status that still allows Germany’s domestic intelligence agency to monitor the party — and stressed that the main proceedings in the case still lie ahead.
A final court decision could take years.
Nette Nöstlinger contributed to this report.