German minister to decide on AfD report publication after key meeting

Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt will decide on whether to publish a report from Germany's domestic intelligence agency classifying the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) as a confirmed right-wing extremist group after meeting with the agency.

Dobrindt, a Bavarian conservative, told a Thursday evening talk show on the German public broadcaster ZDF, that he had invited the president of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution's (BfV), the agency, for a discussion.

"I also want to be briefed on this report directly by the BfV itself," Dobrindt said. Following his meeting with the BfV, Dobrindt said a decision would be made on whether to publish the report, potentially in a redacted form to protect intelligence sources.

The internal document served as the basis for the domestic intelligence agency's recent decision to classify the AfD as a "confirmed right-wing extremist endeavour" but the document has been kept under wraps.

The AfD is challenging the classification with an urgent application before the Cologne Administrative Court.

So far, the BfV has suspended the new classification under a so-called standstill agreement and continues to list the AfD as a "suspected case" until the court rules.

Report is more than 1,000 pages

The report, which is said to be around 1,100 pages long, provides quotes and evidence supporting the confirmed right-wing extremist classification.

Dobrindt said on the show that he has not yet read the report and he does not have a copy of it.

However various media outlets have reportedly accessed the internal document and are already quoting from it.