A German court on Tuesday dismissed a lawsuit brought by the Thuringian branch of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party against three passages in a 2021 domestic intelligence report.
The verdict comes ahead of key regional elections in the eastern states of Thuringia and Saxony on Sunday, in which polls suggest the AfD could win.
In Thuringia, the anti-immigration movement AfD is considered far-right and is monitored by the domestic intelligence service.
The leader of the party in Thuringia, Björn Höcke, is known in the country for his controversial statements and has twice been convicted in court for knowingly using a banned Nazi slogan in speeches.
The administrative court in Weimar ruled on Tuesday that the party’s lawsuit against the 2021 report is unfounded, because the public interest outweighs the stigma attached to the publication for the AfD.
Specifically, this concerned three passages in the report in which messages from the co-spokespeople of the AfD in Thuringia, Höcke and Stefan Möller, were distorted from their perspective.
The report listed the statements under the headings ‘Islamophobia: Violations of Human Dignity’, ‘Attacks on the Rule of Law’ and ‘Historical Revisionism’.
The presiding judge found that the quotations had been correctly reproduced and that their interpretation remained within acceptable limits.
Höcke is the lead candidate for the AfD in the upcoming state elections in Thuringia. The party has been polling for weeks at around 30%, well above other parties.
Möller said he did not want to accept the decision: “We are going to the next level.”
This means that the legal battle before the Thuringian Court of Appeal can continue.
