Event: Germans

AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTYou have a preview view of this article while we are checking your access. When we have confirmed access, the full article content will load.The domestic intelligence agency can still spy on the far-right party, and the ruling may not change Germans’ views, but it is a symbolic victory for the AfD.Supporters of Alternative für Deutschland, or AfD, in Halle, Germany, last year.Credit...Sergey Ponomarev for The New York TimesFeb. 26, 2026Germany’s domestic intelligence agency must temporarily stop categorizing the leading far-right, anti-immigration party as “confirmed extremist,” a court ruled on Thursday, handing the party a win ahead of state elections this year.The injunction, by an administrative court in Cologne, is in place until the court decides whether the label applied to the party, the Alternative für Deutschland, or AfD, is legal. The process could take months or years. The intelligence agency announced the designation in May.Alice Weidel, one of the party’s two leaders, praised the ruling in a post on X. “A great victory not only for the AfD, but also for democracy and the rule of law!” she wrote.The ruling is mostly symbolic. Though it temporarily removes the label of confirmed extremist, it leaves in place the designation “suspected extremist.” The intelligence agency, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, previously applied that label to the AfD.That means the agency can continue to use most of its arsenal of spying tools in surveilling the party, including wiretaps and paid informants.The change may have little practical effect on the party’s political fortunes. The AfD’s history of denigrating foreigners, trivializing the Holocaust and using Nazi slogans is well known to Germans, who have largely moved on from debates about whether to ban the party and how to label it.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If…