Officials who are involved in the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party will be removed from service with the federal police, according to an internal memo leaked to the German newspaper Junge Freiheit.
The memo refers to a decree issued by Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser, of the Social Democrats (SPD). Faeser has warned federal police officers against sympathizing with the AfD and also stated that they should not join the party as members.
“They should expect to be fired,” said Faeser.
The federal police have 54,000 employees, of whom 45,000 are police officers. It is unclear how many officers are currently members of the party, however, many police are members of other parties, which means the decree and threats from Faeser are not about maintaining political neutrality.
For example, the president of the federal police, Dieter Romann, is a member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). A screenshot taken from the police intranet was shared exclusively with Junge Freiheit, which reads: “If membership in such a party becomes known, there are sufficient actual indications that justify the suspicion of a disciplinary offense, at least if the officer is actively involved in such a party.”
Finally, there is an open threat of termination for officers found to be members of the party. “If disciplinary proceedings are initiated in these cases, officers must expect disciplinary consequences up to and including dismissal,” the intranet site reads.
To underline the threat, the words “disciplinary consequences up to and including dismissal” are marked in bold in the text.
The police source who spoke to Junge Freiheit, and wishes to remain anonymous, told the paper: “For me, this represents a significant restriction on the free formation of my own will as a police officer. In my opinion, making involvement with a party that represents more than a fifth of the population a criminal offense is an unacceptable curtailment of the basic rights of civil servants — even taking into account the obligation of neutrality. Any activity for the AfD is prohibited.”
The internal memo is entitled: “Candidacy for a confirmed right-wing extremist party? Not a good idea as a federal civil servant!” It is clear, therefore, that this does not only apply to the police but a range of civil service professions.
Dismissal from the civil service is not only sought in the case of candidacy but also for “other behavior that requires a targeted adoption of the political content of such a party.” This is “to be regarded as activism in this sense.”
The memo reads that the constitutional state “cannot tolerate” this because “the free democratic basic order is rather endangered if the constitutional state remains inactive and allows officials who are entrusted with state tasks and who are obliged to stand up for the free democratic basic order to question the constitutional order in its absolute core.”
In this internal warning, the German Federal Police explicitly refers to a decree of the Federal Ministry of the Interior dated Aug. 29, 2024. This provides for the “mandatory initiation of disciplinary proceedings” if one runs for the AfD, which is classified as “certainly right-wing extremist” in the German states of Saxony and Thuringia.
Furthermore, the provision applies not only to membership in the AfD but also to membership in “right-wing extremist groups such as the ‘Free Saxons’ or the AfD’s youth organization, ‘Young Alternative.’
“In order to enable the new disciplinary measures against politically undesirable officials, according to the memo, Police Service Regulation 100 (“Leadership and deployment of the police”) was amended. The Federal Police informs its officers that section 1.5 “Leadership and Cooperation” has been revised.
The AfD is expected to become the second largest party in the Bundestag after the federal elections on Feb. 23 with polls currently placing them on 22 percent — its highest level of support for over a year.
