Germany's alternative Für Deutschland (AFD) party has been designated by the country's federal government as a right-wing extremist to protect the constitution.

"Based on race and ancestors' understanding of the people that are prevalent in the party is incompatible with liberal democratic order," the domestic intelligence agency said in a statement.

The AFD ranked second in the federal election in February, winning a record 152 seats in a 630-seat parliament with 20.8% of the vote.

Parliament or federal parliament will vote next week to confirm Conservative leader Friedrich Merz as prime minister and to coalition with center-left Social Democrats.

AFD co-leaders Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla said the decision was "apparently politically motivated" and "a serious blow to German democracy." They argued that shortly before the government changes, their party was “smeared and criminalized.”

The far-right AFD has been seen as Germany's extremism, and intelligence agencies have also classified it as a right-wing extremist in the three eastern states, with the highest popularity.

The agency, or Verfassungschutz, said in particular, that the AFD did not regard citizens "a background in immigration that is primarily from Muslim countries" as equal members of the German people.

AFD Vice Chairman Stephan Brandner said the decision was “completely nonsense and has nothing to do with law and order.”

However, Acting Home Minister Nancy Faeser said that after a comprehensive review and a 1,100-page report, the agency made a clear, clear decision in “no political influence.”

Destager Vice Chairman Andrea Lindholz said that as a designated right-wing extremist group, the AFD should not be seen as other parties, especially in parliament.

With a large number of seats, AFD members may be eligible to serve as chairman of the parliamentary committee, but Lindholz said the idea is now "almost unthinkable".

The AFD leader said after the election was successful that the so-called firewall prevents other parties from working with them.

"Anyone who builds a firewall will be baked behind them," Tino Chrupalla said.

Chrupalla's party doubled its share of votes within four years, but remains second only to Merz's conservatives in the polls, despite several scandals, including a high-profile member convicted of using a banned Nazi slogan.

Earlier this year, Alice Weidel accepted the term “immigration”, widely believed to mean mass deportation from people with immigrant backgrounds, although she rejected the definition.

The AFD also attracted support from Trump administration leaders. Nine days before the election, U.S. Vice President JD Vance met Weidel in Munich and said there was no place to "firewall", saying freedom of speech was retreating in Europe.

Tech billionaire Elon Musk has provided Weidel with a long audience in a live chat on X and calls on Germans to vote for the AFD. He then repeatedly posted support for Weidell's party in the voting contest.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the decision made by German intelligence agencies meant it had gained "new power to investigate the opposition. It's not democracy - it's tyranny".

As part of ensuring Germany's "basic order of freedom and democracy", domestic intelligence agencies are both responsible for anti-wisdom and investigating terrorist threats.

While the court is expected to challenge the AFD designation changes, it could lower the threshold for the agency to use informants and monitor the party’s surveillance.

Some German politicians say the party's new designation should lead to a ban.

According to the Basic Law of Germany - a constitution adopted in 1949 after the fall of Hitler's Nazi regime - a party that "deliberately undermines the operation of the basic order of liberal democracy in Germany" if they act in a "radical and aggressive manner."

Domestic intelligence cannot push for a ban on the party – only through two houses in parliament, government or constitutional courts – but its latest decision can encourage others to start the process.

Outgoing Prime Minister Olaf Scholz warned against rushing to make a decision, but Heidi Reichinnek of the Left Party said no one could accept that “a reliable right-wing extreme party is fighting internal democracy and destroying our democracy”.

Since the war, the Constitutional Court has banned only two parties in the 1950s.

Schleszi-Holstein's Christian Democratic Prime Minister in northern Germany called for the incoming government to file a lawsuit to ban AFD. Daniel Günther told Spiegel magazine that the party is at risk for "social harmony."

However, Christian Democratic Prime Minister Michael Kretschmer, in the eastern Saxony state, was quoted as "the enemy of democracy is not only the defense of the state and democracy begins at the social center."

In another article on X, Musk argued on Friday that the ban on "centrist AFDs" he also labeled as Germany's most popular party, "will be an extreme attack on democracy."

The deputy leader of the Social Democratic social company Serpil Midyatli said it is black and white now and everyone already knows it. "For me, this ban has to come," she said.

She said that regardless of the success of the AFD election, the founding fathers of Germany's post-war constitution tried to ensure that the country was not trapped in the abyss.