Summary
Germany’s domestic intelligence agency declared the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party a “proven right-wing extremist organization,” citing Holocaust trivialization, Nazi slogans, and anti-immigrant rhetoric.
This marks the first time a federally represented party has been labeled extremist.
U.S. Republicans, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Vice President J.D. Vance, condemned the move. Rubio called it “tyranny in disguise” and praised the AfD’s popularity, while Elon Musk said banning the “centrist AfD” would be “an extreme attack on democracy.”
The AfD recently won 152 seats and over 20% of the vote.
Their slogan for the election was “Alice für Deutschland”, meaning Alice for Germany with Alice being Alice Weidel, the party co-chairman and chancellor candidate. Seems like a predictable sounding nationalist slogan that also aligns well with their party name, until you realise it’s actually a serendipitous pun on the Nazi slogan “alles für Deutschland”, a phrase which is banned in Germany. The pronunciation of the two phrases in German is virtually identical. There’s dog whistles, and then there’s foghorns.