The case of Katrin Lange: She threw out the head of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution – and had to leave shortly afterwards

Since 2020, the AfD in Brandenburg had been considered a suspected right-wing extremist party. In the fall of 2024, the party was to be upgraded to "confirmed right-wing extremist" by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution . The decision was to be announced by then-Brandenburg Interior Minister Michael Stübgen (CDU ) in November.

After the traffic light coalition government collapsed, Stübgen and Brandenburg's head of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Jörg Müller, agreed to postpone the matter. Because the AfD could have filed a lawsuit and the classification could have been overturned so shortly before the federal election.

In September 2024, a new state parliament was elected in Brandenburg, and in December, Katrin Lange (SPD ) became the new Minister of the Interior. She opposes a ban on the AfD and supports politically opposing the party. Die Zeit writes that the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution was therefore concerned that Lange might want to prevent the AfD from being upgraded to a higher status.

Fight in the Interior Ministry over the AfD's upgrade

However, according to an official directive issued by Lange's predecessor in 2023, the agency can do this itself. The official directive states that the head of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution is authorized to sign documents such as the one concerning the AfD's upgrade without consulting the minister.

Katrin Lange claims she was unaware of this. When she was State Secretary in the Ministry of the Interior from 2016 to 2019, this regulation didn't exist. Jörg Müller, she claimed, hadn't informed her. She assumed that, as a political official, Müller couldn't make any decisions without her. The Civil Service Status Act states that political officials must be in "ongoing agreement with the fundamental political views and goals of the government." The Office for the Protection of the Constitution is a department of the Brandenburg Ministry of the Interior.

Now a battle began behind the scenes. Lange says she told Müller in discussions on April 9 and 14 that Brandenburg should wait for the federal government's decision on upgrading the AfD. On April 14, Müller signed the upgrade of the Brandenburg AfD to a "certainly right-wing extremist" state association. No one outside the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution learned of this.

Müller says he tried to inform the minister in advance and give her the 144-page report to read. She wasn't interested.

On May 2, the AfD was upgraded to federal status. Nancy Faeser, Interior Minister of the defeated traffic light coalition government, announced the decision. The dpa news agency then asked Minister Lange what the situation was in Brandenburg. Lange inquired with Müller. He responded by email that the federal classification had no immediate impact. "In a federal state, each state makes its own decisions." In his email, Müller subsequently suggested to the minister that they use the "momentum" and announce that Brandenburg was "now" upgrading the AfD's state association to a proven extremist endeavor.

The head of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution is dismissed

Lange did not follow this suggestion, but instead wrote in her statement: The political challenge posed by the AfD must be "primarily answered politically." She asked her department head, Müller, to present her with the status of the AfD's classification. According to her, she received the documents on May 5 and learned for the first time that Müller had signed the upgrade on April 14.

On May 6, Katrin Lange dismissed the head of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, stating that trust in him was no longer maintained. She also revoked the official directive; the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution must now consult with the minister again before signing any documents. Müller told the press that he had nothing to reproach himself for.

The internal conflict now became a political crisis.

The Brandenburg opposition immediately sharply criticized Lange. The CDU accused her of curtailing the political independence of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution and playing into the hands of extremists. The Greens declared that Müller's dismissal was a "politically motivated expulsion of a recognized expert and campaigner against right-wing extremism." The Left Party also backed Müller, declaring that the state government was "blind in its right eye."