German spy agency pauses 'extremist' classification for AfD party, local court says
BERLIN (Reuters) -Germany's domestic spy agency BfV will temporarily refrain from classifying the Alternative for Germany party as an extremist organization, pending litigation by the AfD, a court in the western city of Cologne said on Thursday.
The agency would not publicly refer to the AfD as a "confirmed right-wing extremist movement" until the court has ruled on an AfD motion to issue a temporary injunction, the statement said.
The extremist classification announced last week allows the Cologne-based spy agency to step up monitoring of the AfD, for example by recruiting informants and intercepting party communications.
The agency's 1,100-page experts' report, which is not to be released to the public, found the AfD to be a racist and anti-Muslim organisation.
The AfD says its designation is a politically motivated attempt to discredit and criminalise it.
The AfD's leadership on Thursday welcomed the decision by the BfV, which the court said was not acknowledging any legal obligation.
"This is a first important step towards our actual exoneration and thus countering the accusation of right-wing extremism," party leaders Tino Chrupalla and Alice Weidel said in a joint statement.
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