BERLIN, March 12 (Xinhua) -- A sub-group of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) was classified as a right-wing extremist movement, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) announced on Thursday.
The sub-group, Fluegel, which translates as wing, was proven to be a right-wing extremist movement "against the liberal democratic basic order", according to the BfV, Germany's domestic intelligence service.
In January 2019, BfV declared the AfD group as a so-called suspicious case and now officially classified the group as an observation case. The group had no formal membership list, but the BfV is assuming that it has around 7,000 members.
Classification as an observation case means that the AfD group can be observed using the full range of available intelligence service tools.
The positions of the AfD sub-group wing were "not compatible with the Basic Law", said BfV president Thomas Haldenwang, adding that previously received clues of anti-constitutional behavior had "intensified."
The BfV stressed that the "increased central importance" of the AfD group's right-wing extremist leaders, Bjoern Hoecke and Andreas Kalbitz, had been one of the main reasons for the decision.
