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The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution is allowed to classify and treat the AfD youth organization Junge Alternative (JA) as a confirmed extremist effort. The Cologne Administrative Court decided this in its decision on Monday, as the court has now announced. During the summary examination required in the expedited procedure, it can be determined "that the court is convinced that the JA is an extremist effort."
The reason given in the decision is that the JA continues to represent “a ethnic concept of people based on ethnic origins”. Preserving the German people in their ethnic structure and, if possible, excluding “ethnic foreigners” is a central political idea of the JA. This represents a violation of human dignity.
In addition, the JA is experiencing “continued massive anti-foreigner and especially anti-Islam and anti-Muslim agitation.” Asylum seekers and migrants are “generally suspected and degraded. Immigrants are generally described as freeloaders and criminals or are viewed with contempt in other ways and their human dignity is therefore disregarded." In addition, the JA agitates against the principle of democracy and maintains connections to organizations that are classified as unconstitutional, such as the "Identitarian Movement."
The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution had already classified the JA as a suspected case of right-wing extremism in 2019. The Cologne administrative court dismissed a lawsuit against this in March 2022.
In April 2023, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution attested that the JA had “consolidated the content and in some cases also intensified the extremist positions”. They propagate a ethnic social concept “based on basic biological assumptions” and agitate against democracy. The JA is not concerned with a dispute on the matter, "but rather with a general denigration of the democratic system of the Federal Republic of Germany." This resulted in the classification and treatment as a confirmed right-wing extremist effort.
The AfD and JA took legal action against this in June 2023 and requested that interim legal protection be granted. The Cologne Administrative Court has now rejected this. An appeal is possible against the decision that has now been published. The Higher Administrative Court for North Rhine-Westphalia in Münster would have to decide on this.
The Higher Administrative Court will soon deal with the JA anyway: from March 12th, it will deal with the appeals of the AfD and the JA against the decisions of the Cologne Administrative Court on their respective classifications by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution as suspected cases.
ulz/wow