Washington, May 3 (UNI) US tech entrepreneur and billionaire Elon Musk stated on Friday that banning the centrist Alternative for Germany (AfD), Germany’s most popular political party, would represent an “extreme attack on democracy.”
Earlier in the day, the German Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, the nation’s counterintelligence agency, designated the AfD party as an extremist movement.
“Banning the centrist AfD, Germany’s, most popular party, would be an extreme attack on democracy,” Musk wrote in an X post.
US Secretary Marco Rubio responded to the news by stating that, with the designation of the AfD as an extremist movement, Germany is no longer a democracy but rather “tyranny in disguise.”
According to Deutsche Welle, the designation of the AfD as “confirmed right-wing extremist” brings several implications: German authorities can now monitor AfD meetings, intercept phone communications, and enlist informants.
On February 23, Germany held snap parliamentary elections. After the ballots were counted in all 299 constituencies, AfD received a record 20.8% of the votes. At the same time, the CDU/CSU bloc, which won the elections, received 28.6%. The Social Democratic Party, led by outgoing Chancellor Olaf Scholz, came in third with 16.4%, the worst result in the party’s history.
