Trump official slams Germany’s surveillance of AfD as ‘tyranny in disguise’; Berlin fires back | World News

A transatlantic exchange erupted on Friday after United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio accused Germany of “tyranny in disguise” over its decision to classify the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party as an extrem group.
“Germany just gave its spy agency new powers to surveil the opposition,” Rubio posted on his official State Department X account. “That’s not democracy—it’s tyranny in disguise.”
Rubio, recently appointed interim National Security Adviser, added: “What is truly extrem is not the popular AfD—which took second in the recent election—but rather the establishment’s deadly open border immigration policies that the AfD opposes.”
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Germany’s Foreign Office issued a direct rebuttal to Rubio’s statement, defending its democratic principles and legal process.
“This is democracy. This decision is the result of a thorough & independent investigation to protect our Constitution & the rule of law,” the minry posted on X. “It is independent courts that will have the final say. We have learnt from our hory that rightwing extremism needs to be stopped.”

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Rubio’s post marked yet another instance of a senior Trump official expressing support for the far-right AfD, a party whose leaders as per reports have faced widespread criticism for anti-Semitic, anti-Muslim, and xenophobic remarks, including advocating the mass deportation of immigrants. As per a report CNN, in 2024, prominent AfD figure Björn Höcke was convicted for violating German laws publicly using Nazi-era slogans.
Vice President JD Vance, who met with AfD leaders in February, also slammed the decision saying, “The AfD is the most popular party in Germany, and far the most representative of East Germany. Now the bureaucrats try to destroy it,” he wrote. “The West tore down the Berlin Wall together. And it has been rebuilt—not the Soviets or the Russians, but the German establishment.”
At February’s Munich Security Conference, Vance had warned: “In Britain and across Europe, free speech, I fear, is in retreat.”Story continues below this ad
Germany’s domestic intelligence agency, according to the Associated Press, justified its move stating that AfD threatens democracy and aims to discriminate against citizens with Muslim migration backgrounds.
AfD leaders condemned the classification, as per AP.
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