BERLIN (AP) - A Berlin court on Thursday dismissed a legal bid by the far-right Alternative for Germany party to have mention of two of its branches removed from a government report on extremism.
The capital’s administrative court said the German Interior Ministry can include the party’s youth branch and a grouping known as ‘The Wing’ in a 2019 report on organizations being monitored for possible extremist activity.
Alternative for Germany had sought to have the references deleted from the ministry’s report, and to have the branches’ members subtracted from a count of far-right extremists.
The report is compiled by Germany’s domestic intelligence agency, which has stepped up its scrutiny of the Alternative for Germany over the past year amid indications that some members were flirting with extremism.
The party, known by its German acronym AfD, has strongly denied pursuing extremist aims. It is currently wracked by infighting over the expulsion of a senior member who hid his past links to a neo-Nazi group.
The administrative court ruled there was sufficient evidence to show that AfD’s youth branch and The Wing, which was recently disbanded, seek to create an ethnically homogeneous population in Germany that would exclude people deemed to be “foreigners.” The court said both also have made blanket accusations against Muslims.
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