Vice President Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio blasted Germany’s government for labeling the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party as an “extremist” political group. 

“Germany just gave its spy agency new powers to surveil the opposition. That’s not democracy—it’s tyranny in disguise. What is truly extremist 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,” Rubio said in a Friday post on social media platform X. “Germany should reverse course.”

Rubio’s condemnation came shortly after the German domestic spy agency designated AfD as an extremist entity that is a threat to democracy, permitting the government to bolster surveillance and oversight. 

The designation, which was announced Friday, followed a 1,000-page report by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution. The office conducted a three-year investigation into the entity, arguing that the political party is violating the “fundamental principles” of the constitution, including the rule of law, democratic principles and human rights. 

“Central to our assessment is the ethnically and ancestrally defined concept of the people that shapes the AfD, which devalues entire segments of the population in Germany and violates their human dignity,” the spy agency said, adding the “concept is reflected in the party’s overall anti-migrant and anti-Muslim stance.”

Vance, who met with AfD’s leader Alice Weidel in February ahead of the country’s elections, said the entity is the “most popular party in Germany, and by far the most representative of East Germany. Now the bureaucrats try to destroy it.”  

“The West tore down the Berlin Wall together. And it has been rebuilt—not by the Soviets or the Russians, but by the German establishment,” the vice president wrote Friday on X. 

Germany’s foreign ministry responded directly to Rubio’s Friday post on X, contending the decision to impose the designation came as a result of a “thorough & independent investigation to protect our Constitution & the rule of law.” 

“It is independent courts that will have the final say. We have learnt from our history that rightwing extremism needs to be stopped,” the office wrote.