ZDF-Moderator Mitri Sirin rebuked the First Parliamentary Managing Director of the AfD faction in the Bundestag, Bernd Baumann, sharply in the ZDF Morgenmagazin. Earlier, Baumann had denied right-wing extremism in parts of his party.
“[AfD leader] Björn Hocke is not a right-wing extremist,” said Baumann. “Who says so? The so-called Office for the Protection of the Constitution! The Office for the Protection of the Constitution is a lackey of the Interior Ministers!”
This is “of course complete nonsense,” Sirin immediately retorted. The Office for the Protection of the Constitution protects the liberal democratic order and has determined within its competence that individual parts of the AfD are to be classified as right-wing extremist.
Baumann: “The citizens see it differently”
Without hesitation, Baumann then turned the tables. Not what he said, but Sirin’s statements were “nonsense,” “rubbish,” and basically proof of the bias of many public institutions.
“[That Höcke is right-wing extremist], that’s what ZDF and the Office for the Protection of the Constitution claim,” said Baumann. “But the citizens see it differently! There’s nothing extremist about us!”
Courts classify East German AfD associations as confirmed right-wing-extremist
Several court rulings contradict Baumann’s statements. For instance, in July 2023, the public prosecutor’s office in Frankfurt terminated a procedure against a demonstrator who publicly referred to Hocke as a “Nazi.” The investigators argued that it was “not a punishable insult,” but “a value judgment based on facts.”
The Office for the Protection of the Constitution has considered the entire AfD as a suspected right-wing extremist since March 2021. The AfD state associations Thuringia, Saxony-Anhalt, and Saxony are now classified as confirmed right-wing extremist after several years of observation and investigation.
