BERLIN\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Germany\u2019s Foreign Ministry has hit back at U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio after he criticized the nation\u2019s intelligence service decision to classify the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany party as a \u201cright-wing extremist\u201d organization.<\/p>\n
The feud deepened late last week to embroil the foreign office, Rubio, Vice President JD Vance and Trump administration billionaire advisor 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 now Parliament is set to vote this week to elect conservative leader Friedrich Merz as the country\u2019s new chancellor.<\/p>\n
Merz has not commented publicly on the intelligence service\u2019s decision.<\/p>\n
Oleksii Makeiev, Ukraine\u2019s ambassador to Germany, told German news agency DPA that he\u2019s concerned about Alternative for Germany\u2019s ties to Russia in light of the classification.<\/p>\n
The far-right party, known as AfD, has long faced criticism for Russia-friendly positions, and it opposes Germany\u2019s stance toward the war in Ukraine. Berlin is Ukraine\u2019s second-biggest weapons supplier after the United States.<\/p>\n
\u2018Disregards human dignity\u2019<\/p>\n
Germany\u2019s Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution described AfD as a threat to the country\u2019s democratic order, saying it \u201cdisregards human dignity\u201d \u2014 in particular by what the agency called \u201congoing agitation\u201d against refugees and migrants.<\/p>\n
The agency said in its decision that the \u201cethnicity- and ancestry-based conception of the people that predominates within the party is not compatible with the free democratic order.\u201d It cited the \u201cxenophobic, anti-minority, Islamophobic and anti-Muslim statements made by leading party officials.\u201d<\/p>\n
The party \u201caims to exclude certain population groups from equal participation in society, to subject them to treatment that violates the constitution, and thereby assign them a legally subordinate status,\u201d the agency said.<\/p>\n
The move to classify the AfD, which placed second in national elections in February, as a right-wing extremist group means intelligence officials can now use informants and other tools such as audio and video recordings to monitor its activities nationwide. <\/p>\n
But it also risks fueling the party\u2019s claims of political persecution. Far-right parties have been gaining ground across Europe, and AfD attracts international attention, including high-profile support from Musk and Vance.<\/p>\n
Party leaders Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla on Friday condemned the move as \u201ca severe blow to German democracy,\u201d noting that the party has grown into one of the country\u2019s most popular political forces. They alleged that it was politically motivated, a claim the government denies.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe AfD will continue to legally defend itself against these democracy-endangering defamations,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n
AfD\u2019s second-place finish during the elections cemented the party\u2019s status as a factor that other politicians can\u2019t ignore, but the so-called firewall, which mainstream German political parties have against working with far-right parties, has held.<\/p>\n
Rubio and Vance take to X<\/p>\n
In his post 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 that \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 ministry wrote late 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
Vance, meanwhile, 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 [the former] 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
Trump administration\u2019s past ties<\/p>\n
Vance met with Weidel in February, nine days before the national election, on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference. He assailed the firewall in a speech to the conference.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo many of us on the other side of the Atlantic, it looks more and more like old entrenched interests hiding behind ugly Soviet-era words like \u2018misinformation\u2019 and \u2018disinformation,\u2019 who simply don\u2019t like the idea that somebody with an alternative viewpoint might express a different opinion or, God forbid, vote a different way, or even worse, win an election,\u201d he told the audience.<\/p>\n
Musk has supported AfD for months, including a chat with Weidel that he livestreamed on X this year to amplify the party\u2019s message. Musk told Weidel that he was \u201cstrongly recommending that people vote for AfD.\u201d <\/p>\n
The audience for the livestream peaked at more than 200,000 X accounts.<\/p>\n
Dazio writes for the Associated Press. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BERLIN\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Germany\u2019s Foreign Ministry has hit back at U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio after he criticized the nation\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":75421,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5310],"tags":[8385,37208,37213,4094,37211,2000,299,37214,37209,1824,2820,8865,37210,32238,657,10020,37212],"class_list":{"0":"post-75420","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-germany","8":"tag-afd","9":"tag-anti-immigrant-party","10":"tag-constitution","11":"tag-country","12":"tag-decision","13":"tag-eu","14":"tag-europe","15":"tag-far-right-party","16":"tag-foreign-ministry","17":"tag-germany","18":"tag-marco-rubio","19":"tag-musk","20":"tag-national-election","21":"tag-rubio","22":"tag-ukraine","23":"tag-vance","24":"tag-weidel"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114453039310038286","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75420","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=75420"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75420\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75421"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75420"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75420"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75420"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}