Germany's Foreign Office has defended a decision to classify the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party as right-wing extremist, after sharp criticism from the White House.
US Vice-President JD Vance accused "bureaucrats" of rebuilding the Berlin Wall, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio slammed the designation as "tyranny in disguise".
In an unusual move, the foreign office directly replied to Rubio on X, writing: "We have learnt from our history that right-wing extremism needs to be stopped."
The intelligence agency that made the classification found AfD's "prevailing understanding of people based on ethnicity and descent" goes against Germany's "free democratic order".
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German politician Sahra Wagenknecht condemned the move of the Germany’s Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution to classify the Alternative for Germany as a "right-wing extremist organization."
ReplyDelete"The new assessment of the AfG by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution is essentially controversial and politically counterproductive" the leader of the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance wrote on X. "What we need is not a new discussion about banning it, but at long last a sensible policy that will be compelling to citizens and improve their living situation, instead of angering them further with inability, arrogance and electoral fraud."
The German Foreign Ministry rejected US Secretary of State Marco Rubio's criticism of the move of the German domestic intelligence service to list the Alternative for Germany party as a right-wing extremist organization.
ReplyDelete"This is democracy. This decision is the result of a thorough and independent investigation to protect our Constitution and the rule of law," the ministry said on X. "It is independent courts that will have the final say. We have learnt from our history that rightwing extremism needs to be stopped."
Rubio previously blasted the move, saying in an X post, "That’s not democracy - it’s tyranny in disguise."