Rubio slams German 'tyranny' over extremist label on AfD
FILE PHOTO: Supporters of the Eurosceptic Alternative for Germany (AfD) party wear morph suits and wave flags during an event to rally support for Sunday's European Parliament elections at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin May 23, 2014. REUTERS/Thomas Peter/File Photo
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Friday (May 2) denounced Germany's designation of its far-right AfD party as an extremist group, calling the move "tyranny in disguise".
Germany's domestic intelligence service, in designating the AfD as an extremist group, handed authorities greater powers to monitor it and fueled calls for the party to be banned.
"Germany just gave its spy agency new powers to surveil the opposition," Rubio said in a post on X. "That's not democracy -- it's tyranny in disguise."
"Germany should reverse course," he said.
The BfV domestic intelligence agency, which had already designated several local AfD branches as right-wing extremist groups, said it decided to give the entire party the label due to its attempts to "undermine the free, democratic" order in Germany.
"What is truly extremist is not the popular AfD - which took second in the recent election, but rather the establishment's deadly open border immigration policies that the AfD opposes," Rubio said.
Vice President JD Vance triggered alarm in a speech in February in Munich in which he said freedom of expression was slipping in Europe, naming Germany in particular.
Vance complained that the AfD party was being ostracised, called for this to end and met with its leader, Alice Weidel.
