Western German state to stop hiring members of anti-immigrant AfD

Members of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) are to be banned from holding public office in the south-western state of Rhineland-Palatinate, the state government said on Thursday.

All applicants applying for positions in public service will have to declare that they are not a member of an extremist organization, and have not been part of one in the past five years, said state Interior Minister Michael Ebling.

According to a report by local radio station SWR, the measure is to affect civil servants and employees in the public sector covered by collective agreements, including police officers and teachers.

Authorities are to refer to a list regularly updated by domestic intelligence detailing extremist groups and organizations for which there are sufficient indications of anti-constitutional activities, Ebling said.

"The AfD will therefore also be included on this list," the minister added.

Germany's domestic intelligence agency classified the AfD as a confirmed right-wing extremist group in early May, saying its understanding of the German nation as based on ethnicity and descent was incompatible with Germany's free democratic order.

While the party is legally contesting this classification, leading it to be suspended pending a ruling, the move has sparked a renewed debate about banning the AfD, currently the biggest opposition party in the German parliament.

A number of the party's state branches have been classified as confirmed right-wing extremist by local agencies, and domestic intelligence in Rhineland-Palatinate, which borders Belgium, Luxembourg and France, is monitoring the local AfD over suspected extremist tendencies.