Overview
- Four members of the Thuringian AfD won challenges to three permit revocations and one denial issued by authorities in several districts and an independent city.
- The court held that party membership alone does not establish a lack of reliability under Germany’s weapons law.
- Evidence cited by the Verfassungsschutz—37 statements from AfD functionaries over about nine years—was deemed too varied to show a combative‑aggressive stance or a shift to aggression or lawbreaking.
- The panel emphasized it ruled strictly on weapons-law criteria and did not decide whether the AfD’s Thuringian branch as a whole holds unconstitutional positions despite its extremist classification.
- The decisions are not final, as the court allowed an appeal to the Thuringian Higher Administrative Court in Weimar due to the issue’s fundamental significance.