Judges from the higher administrative court in Muenster said the designation of the AfD as a suspected extremist organization is justified based on statements politicians in the party have made about immigrants and Muslims in Germany.
The court said it was “aware of a large number of statements directed against migrants which systematically ostracize them, regardless of the extent of their integration into German society, and question their full membership of the German people despite their German citizenship,” in a statement published Monday.
The judges were “convinced that there are sufficient factual indications that the AfD is pursuing efforts that are directed against the human dignity of certain groups of people and against the principle of democracy,” the statement read.
Politicians in Germany’s three-party coalition government praised the ruling.
The ruling shows that “our constitutional state has instruments that protect our democracy from threats from within,” Germany’s interior minister, Nancy Faeser, said.
Germany’s constitution — forged in many ways to prevent a repeat of the Nazi rise to power — contains measures intended to prevent anti-democratic parties from using democratic means to gain power. Some politicians in Germany have even advocated the possibility of enacting a legal ban of the AfD.