German far-right party sues spy agency over ‘extremist’ label

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00:00It's something which the AFD have been planning ever since they got wind of the fact that the

00:04Domestic Intelligence Agency, it's the Office for the Protection of the German Constitution,

00:11announced that they would be issuing this report. They've launched, they're threatening to launch

00:18legal proceedings, they've sent a cease and desist letter to the agency saying that their decision

00:26following the 1,100 page report is illegal and that they should not go ahead with this. There's

00:34been no response so far from that agency to this letter. The agency has come up with this report

00:41months in the making, 1,100 pages long, which basically gathers together plenty of evidence

00:48showing, as far as the agency is concerned, that the AFD is anti-constitutional, basically because

00:55it does not recognise German citizens as having equality. It discriminates against those who have

01:03an immigrant background or those who are of a Muslim background. And the agency says that this is not

01:10constitutional in Germany and therefore the party can be labelled an extremist right by an organisation.

01:16What this labelling would mean in practice is that the agency could increase its surveillance of the

01:23AFD. The government could deny it certain political funds, which other political parties get, and the bar for

01:30surveillance, telephone, infiltrating meetings, following people, watching people, basically

01:38listening to what they're saying to each other in private, would be lowered. And this, the AFD say,

01:45is illegal. Whether they've really got a legal foot to stand on in this case is moot. The incoming interior

01:52minister, Alexander Dobrindt, says it's unlikely the new government will use this report as a basis for

01:58banning the party, but it does mean they can keep a closer eye on a party which they deem extremist,

02:05even if it is the second largest parliament in the new Bundesberg.

02:08And we've just had news in the last hour or so that Germany's, the party of Germany's designated

02:14Chancellor Friedrich Mertz and the centre-left Social Democrats have formally signed their coalition

02:20contract. Can you give us a few more details, Nick?

02:25Yeah, that follows a vote of party members on whether to accept the deal that Friedrich Mertz

02:32hammered out with his new colleagues from the SPD. This is not a very comfortable coalition.

02:39Friedrich Mertz represents a right-of-centre party, and the SPD is a left-of-centre party. But it's

02:48something which has to work, because this is the only coalition which they could come up with

02:54which would actually be able to rule and form a bulwark against the AfD, which, as I've just said,

02:59has 151 seats in parliament, is the second biggest party. So signing this following the vote of members

03:07confirming that alliance is a formality so that tomorrow Friedrich Mertz can be sworn in as the new

03:14chancellor of Germany, taking over from Olaf Scholz. He's not been a very popular chancellor in his

03:19three years in office.

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