In September, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution announced that it wanted to monitor the Hessian AfD. But after a corresponding lawsuit by the party, the administrative court in Wiesbaden initially prohibited the process. However, the matter has not yet been finally decided.
The Hessian AfD must not initially be observed as a so-called suspected case by the State Office for the Protection of the Constitution. This was decided by the administrative court in Wiesbaden in a decision that is valid until a pending urgent procedure has been completed. The decision was not made on the basis of possible chances of success of the lawsuit, but after weighing the consequences, explained a court spokeswoman.
"With this decision, the court makes no statement as to whether the actions taken by the respondent are lawful or unlawful," the decision says. The consequences of an observation by the AfD that subsequently turns out to be illegal and, on the other hand, the consequences of a failure to observe, which proves to be lawful in the urgent procedure, had been weighed up. An appeal can be lodged against the decision.
The state spokesman for the Hessian AfD, Robert Lambrou, said the court had followed his party's arguments. "From our point of view, the Hessian AfD is wrongly listed as a suspected case and there is considerable damage if the citizen is unsettled in his voting decision a year before the state election by unfairly stigmatizing the AfD."
The AfD has filed both a lawsuit and an urgent application against the State Office for the Protection of the Constitution. Both procedures have not yet been decided. The AfD is also taking legal action against the Hessian Ministry of the Interior and the Hessian Prime Minister. On October 10, 2022, the state office had promised the administrative court that it would not monitor any members of parliament or applicants for a mandate in the state parliament, federal parliament or European parliament because of their party membership until the decision was made in the urgent procedure. In addition, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, as well as the Ministry of the Interior, declared with a so-called standstill commitment that they would no longer report publicly on the observation for the time being.
