Marco Rubio criticized Germany. The foreign ministry hit back

BERLIN AP Germany s foreign ministry hit back at U S Secretary of State Marco Rubio after he criticized the decision to classify the Alternative for Germany party as a right-wing extremist organization The spat deepened Friday to embroil the foreign office Rubio U S Vice President JD Vance and tech billionaire Elon Musk It also occurred at a complicated time for Germany just days before the th anniversary of the end of World War II and Nazi Germany s unconditional capitulation Plus a coalition deal between the center-right and center-left parties was just approved and now parliament is set to vote next week to elect conservative leader Friedrich Merz as the country s new chancellor Merz has not commented publicly on the intelligence utility s decision Disregards human dignity Germany s Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution described the party known as AfD as a threat to the country s democratic order saying it disregards human dignity in particular by what it called ongoing agitation against refugees and asylum seekers The German domestic intelligence arrangement s move to classify the AfD which placed second in national elections in February as a right-wing extremist group means its agents can now use informants and other tools such as audio and video recordings to monitor its pursuits nationwide But it also risks fueling the party s insists of political persecution Far-right parties have been gaining ground across Europe and the AfD attracts international attention including encouragement from Musk who is a close ally of U S President Donald Trump Party leaders Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla on Friday condemned the move as a severe blow to German democracy given that the party has grown into one of the country s most of popular political forces They alleged that it was politically motivated a claim the administration denies The AfD will continue to legally defend itself against these democracy-endangering defamations they mentioned AfD s second-place finish during the elections cemented the party s status as a factor that other politicians can t ignore but the so-called firewall which mainstream German political parties have against working with far-right parties has held Rubio and Vance take to X In his post on Friday Rubio called on Germany to undo the classification Germany just gave its spy agency new powers to surveil the opposition That s not democracy it s tyranny in disguise he wrote What is truly extremist is not the popular AfD which took second in the up-to-date electoral contest but rather the establishment s deadly open frontier immigration policies that the AfD opposes Germany should reverse module The foreign ministry wrote this is democracy in a post that replied directly to Rubio This decision is the upshot of a thorough independent examination to protect our Constitution the rule of law the foreign office wrote late Friday It is independent courts that will have the final say We have learnt from our history that rightwing extremism necessities to be stopped Vance meanwhile referenced the Cold War in his post on X The AfD is the majority popular party in Germany and by far the largest part representative of East Germany Now the bureaucrats try to destroy it Vance wrote The West tore down the Berlin Wall together And it has been rebuilt not by the Soviets or the Russians but by the German establishment Musk who owns X re-posted Vance s comments and added fate loves irony The Trump inner circle s history with the AfD Vance met with Weidel in February nine days before the national electoral process on the sidelines of the Munich Prevention Conference He assailed the firewall in a speech to the conference To countless of us on the other side of the Atlantic it looks more and more like old entrenched interests hiding behind ugly Soviet-era words like misinformation and disinformation who only don t like the idea that somebody with an alternative viewpoint might express a different opinion or God forbid vote a different way or even worse win an electoral process he informed the audience Musk has supported the AfD for months including a chat with Weidel that he livestreamed on X earlier this year to amplify the party s message Musk advised Weidel that he was strongly recommending that people vote for AfD The audience for the livestream peaked at more than X accounts Source