AfD appeal fails at the Higher Administrative Court against provisional upgrading

The AfD in Lower Saxony has failed in its appeal against a court order for its provisional upgrading by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution. The Higher Administrative Court (OVG) in Lüneburg confirmed a decision by the Hanover Administrative Court.

The 11th Senate of the OVG “shared the opinion of the administrative court that there were facts that demonstrated an effort directed against the free, democratic basic order,” the court said.

The Office for the Protection of the Constitution announced in February that it was upgrading the AfD Lower Saxony from an object of suspicion to an object of considerable importance for observation. The AfD regional association appealed against this with an urgent application, which the Hanover administrative court rejected at the beginning of June. The OVG has now rejected a complaint lodged against this decision.

AfD Lower Saxony has been a suspect since 2022

The AfD Lower Saxony was classified as a suspected object for the first time in May 2022, and in 2024 this phase was extended once by two years. The AfD had sued against the upgrade and applied for urgent legal protection.

By May 2026 at the latest, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution had to decide whether to end the observation or put it on a new basis. In March, the Interior Ministry in Hanover announced that the AfD's upgrade was on hold for the time being and would only be treated as an object of suspicion. However, in a decision dated June 1, 2026, the Hanover Administrative Court rejected the urgent application by the state association of the AfD against the Lower Saxony Office for the Protection of the Constitution.