BERLIN (AP) — Germany’s foreign ministry hit back at U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio after he criticized the decision to classify the Alternative for Germany party as a “right-wing extremist” organization.
The spat deepened Friday to embroil the foreign office, Rubio, U.S. Vice President JD Vance and tech billionaire Elon Musk. It also occurred at a complicated time for Germany — just days before the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II and Nazi Germany’s unconditional capitulation.
Plus, a coalition deal between the center-right and center-left parties was just approved, and now parliament is set to vote next week to elect conservative leader Friedrich Merz as the country’s new chancellor.
Merz has not commented publicly on the intelligence service’s decision.
Oleksii Makeiev, Ukraine’s ambassador to Germany, told German news agency dpa that he’s concerned about AfD’s ties to Russia in light of the classification.
AfD has long faced criticism for Russia-friendly positions, and opposes Germany’s stance toward the war in Ukraine. Berlin is Ukraine’s second-biggest weapons supplier after the United States.
‘Disregards human dignity’
Germany’s Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution described the party, known as AfD, as a threat to the country’s democratic order, saying it “disregards human dignity” — in particular by what it called “ongoing agitation” against refugees and migrants.
The German domestic intelligence service’s move to classify the AfD, which placed second in national elections in February, as a right-wing extremist group means its officials can now use informants and other tools such as audio and video recordings to monitor its activities nationwide.
But it also risks fueling the party’s claims of political persecution. Far-right parties have been gaining ground across Europe and the AfD attracts international attention, including support from Musk, who is a close ally of U.S. President Donald Trump.
Party leaders Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla on Friday condemned the move as “a severe blow to German democracy,” given that the party has grown into one of the country’s most popular political forces. They alleged that it was politically motivated, a claim the government denies.
“The AfD will continue to legally defend itself against these democracy-endangering defamations,” they said.
AfD’s second-place finish during the elections cemented the party’s status as a factor that other politicians can’t ignore, but the so-called “firewall,” which mainstream German political parties have against working with far-right parties, has held.
Rubio and Vance take to X
In his post on Friday, Rubio called on Germany to undo the classification.
“Germany just gave its spy agency new powers to surveil the opposition. That’s not democracy — it’s tyranny in disguise,” he wrote. “What is truly extremist is not the popular AfD — which took second in the recent election — but rather the establishment’s deadly open border immigration policies that the AfD opposes. Germany should reverse course.”
The foreign ministry wrote “this is democracy” in a post that replied directly to Rubio.
“This decision is the result of a thorough & independent investigation to protect our Constitution & the rule of law,” the foreign office wrote late Friday. “It is independent courts that will have the final say. We have learnt from our history that rightwing extremism needs to be stopped.”
Vance, meanwhile, referenced the Cold War in his post on X.
“The AfD is the most popular party in Germany, and by far the most representative of East Germany. Now the bureaucrats try to destroy it,” Vance wrote. “The West tore down the Berlin Wall together. And it has been rebuilt — not by the Soviets or the Russians, but by the German establishment.”
Musk, who owns X, re-posted Vance’s comments and added, “fate loves irony.”
The Trump inner circle’s history with the AfD
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.
“To 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 misinformation and disinformation, who simply don’t 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,” he told the audience.
Musk has supported the AfD for months, including a chat with Weidel that he livestreamed on X earlier this year to amplify the party’s message. Musk told Weidel that he was “strongly recommending that people vote for AfD.”
The audience for the livestream peaked at more than 200,000 X accounts.