Members of Germany’s federal police active in the hard-right “Alternative for Germany” (AfD) party risk disciplinary procedures and an end to their employment, leaked internal documents have revealed.
“Candidacy for a right-wing extremist party? Not a good idea for federal civil servants,” read the title of a document on the Federal Police’s intranet, German newspaper Junge Freiheit reported.
The document warned police officers against joining, “actively working”, or standing as a candidate for the AfD – which surveys have suggested may receive 22 per cent of the vote in Germany’s February elections.
“Our liberal democratic order […] forms the basis for the mindset and behaviour of all police employees”, said the document.
“The constitutional state can therefore not tolerate civil servants, who represent right-wing extremist, racist, or otherwise inhuman positions,” it continued.
The intranet document then referred to an internal decree of the Interior Ministry, dated August 29, 2024. The interior minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) is responsible for Germany’s federal police.
This decree – according to the leaked document – said any police officer standing as a candidate for AfD would need to face a mandatory disciplinary procedure.
The Interior Ministry referred to decisions of the State Offices for Constitution Protection (LfV) in Thuringia and Saxony which characterised AfD as “definitely right-wing extremist”.
“Membership in a party deemed ‘definitely right-wing extremist’ raises doubts about the constitutional loyalty of the police officer”, said the police document.
None of Germany’s other 14 states or the federal government have labelled the AfD as “definitely right-wing extremist”.
Germany’s internal security service (the Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz, or BfV) will publish a report on the federal AfD later this year.
The head of the LfV in Thuringia, one of the two states to apply the label to the AfD, has meanwhile been accused of partisanship.
Police officers facing a disciplinary procedure could get the sack.
The revelation prompted Alice Weidel, the AfD’s candidate for Chancellor in the February election, to call the mandatory disciplinary procedure “Nancy [Faeser]’s great purge”.
Other commentators have raised doubts about the measure’s constitutionality. The German constitution includes a provision that nobody may be disadvantaged or persecuted for their political beliefs.
Brussels Signal contacted Germany’s Interior Ministry for comment, but had not heard back at the time of writing.
