![](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/P05-250505-305.jpg\")
<\/p>\nGerman Ministry of Foreign Affairs hit back at US Secretary of State Marco Rubio after he criticized the decision to classify the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party as a \u201cright-wing extremist\u201d organization. <\/p>\n
The spat deepened on Friday to embroil the foreign office, Rubio, US Vice President J.D. Vance and tech billionaire Elon Musk. It also occurred at a complicated time for Germany \u2014 just days before the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II and Nazi Germany\u2019s unconditional capitulation. <\/p>\n
Plus, a coalition deal between the center-right and center-left parties was just approved, and the German parliament is set to vote next week to elect conservative leader Friedrich Merz as the country\u2019s new chancellor. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Photo: EPA-EFE<\/p>\n
Merz has not commented publicly on the intelligence service\u2019s decision. <\/p>\n
Oleksii Makeiev, Ukrainian ambassador to Germany, told German news agency Deutsche Presse-Agentur that he is concerned about AfD\u2019s ties to Russia in light of the classification. <\/p>\n
AfD has long faced criticism for Russia-friendly positions and opposes Germany\u2019s stance toward the war in Ukraine. Berlin is Ukraine\u2019s second-biggest weapons supplier after the US. <\/p>\n
The German Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution described the party as a threat to the country\u2019s democratic order, saying it \u201cdisregards human dignity\u201d \u2014 in particular by what it called \u201congoing agitation\u201d against refugees and migrants. <\/p>\n
The German domestic intelligence service\u2019s move to classify the AfD, which placed second in national elections in February, as a right-wing extremist group means its officials can now use informants and other tools such as audio and video recordings to monitor its activities nationwide. <\/p>\n
However, it also risks fueling the party\u2019s claims of political persecution. Far-right parties have been gaining ground across Europe and the AfD attracts international attention, including support from Musk, who is a close ally of US President Donald Trump. <\/p>\n
In his post on Friday, Rubio called on Germany to undo the classification. <\/p>\n
\u201cGermany just gave its spy agency new powers to surveil the opposition. That\u2019s not democracy \u2014 it\u2019s tyranny in disguise,\u201d he wrote. \u201cWhat is truly extremist is not the popular AfD \u2014 which took second in the recent election \u2014 but rather the establishment\u2019s deadly open border immigration policies that the AfD opposes. Germany should reverse course.\u201d <\/p>\n
The foreign ministry wrote: \u201cThis is democracy,\u201d in a post that replied directly to Rubio. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis decision is the result of a thorough & independent investigation to protect our Constitution & the rule of law,\u201d the foreign office wrote late on Friday. \u201cIt is independent courts that will have the final say. We have learnt from our history that rightwing extremism needs to be stopped.\u201d <\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Vance referenced the Cold War in his post on X. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe AfD is the most popular party in Germany, and by far the most representative of East Germany. Now the bureaucrats try to destroy it,\u201d Vance wrote. \u201cThe West tore down the Berlin Wall together. And it has been rebuilt \u2014 not by the Soviets or the Russians, but by the German establishment.\u201d <\/p>\n
Musk, who owns X, reposted Vance\u2019s comments and added: \u201cFate loves irony.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"German Ministry of Foreign Affairs hit back at US Secretary of State Marco Rubio after he criticized the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":74617,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5310],"tags":[2000,299,1824,17260,17259],"class_list":{"0":"post-74616","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-germany","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-germany","11":"tag-the-taipei-times","12":"tag-17259"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114451246186583638","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74616","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74616"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74616\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74617"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}