section_path: History/Chrupalla and Weidel (2022–present)/2025
section_name: 2025
paragraph_text: 2025
  
  On 23 February 2025 AfD won 20.8% of the vote in the German federal election, second to the CDU/CSU. It gained 10.4 percentage points over the 2021 election result. The party won nearly a third of the votes in each of the East German states, the lowest being 32.5% in Brandenburg and the highest 38.5% in Thuringia, and won all but three constituency seats in the former East Germany (Potsdam, Erfurt and one of two seats in Leipzig). In the former West Germany, the party beat the SPD for second place by less than 0.5% of the vote and received more than 20% of the vote in two southwestern states: Saarland (21.6%) and Rhineland-Palatinate (20.1%).
  
  On April 2025, for the first time in German history, AfD was ahead of the CDU/CSU (Union) in some opinion polls for the next federal election, while other polls put it on par with the Union or in second place. Support for the CDU/CSU, an alliance that won the election, fell from 29% to 24%, while AfD rose by three percentage points from 22% to 25%, partially becoming the most popular party in Germany.
  
  In May 2025 the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) classified AfD as a "confirmed right-wing extremist endeavor". In a 1,100-page classified and undisclosed report, BfV experts found that AfD is a "racist and anti-Muslim organisation". The classification will allow German authorities to monitor AfD and possibly limit or halt public funding for it. It may also inspire its opponents to attempt to get it banned. AfD leaders Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla said the decision was "clearly politically motivated" and was a "severe blow to German democracy". They argued that AfD is being discredited and persecuted by the government. Chancellor Olaf Scholz said that BfV provided a "very detailed justification" for its decision and that proceedings to ban the AfD must not be rushed. Several federal states in Germany have begun considering measures that would ban AfD members from being employed in jobs like civil servants, police officers, teachers or soldiers in response to the classification.
  
  On 4 May 2025 a poll conducted by Insa Polling Institute which surveyed 1,001 people found that 48% of them favour banning AfD. The poll also showed that 61% of participants consider AfD a "right-wing extremist” party. On 5 May AfD sued the Federal Office for the Protection of Constitution, accusing it of violating the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany (the German constitution) by trying to prosecute AfD for saying ideas which are considered freedom of speech and legitimate criticism of German immigration policies. A court in Cologne will start reviewing the case once BfV confirms that it has been notified of the lawsuit.
  
  Sieghard Knodel, a member of AfD in the Bundestag, had announced his resignation from the party on 6 May 2025. Knodel's resignation was confirmed by an AfD spokesperson and an email which Knodel wrote on 5 May. In the email he expressed his reasons for leaving, stating: "In light of the classification of the party as confirmed right-wing extremist by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, I must protect my private and business environment", he also wrote that his decision was "unavoidable" and that he would continue to serve as a non-attached member of parliament. As a result of him leaving the party, AfD's parliamentary seats have decreased from 152 to 151.
  
  On May 8, the extremist classification of AfD was temporarily suspended by the BfV in a standstill agreement, meaning that the agency is pausing the extremist designation until an official court judgement has been made. AfD's two leaders, Tino Chrupalla and Alice Weidel, said that BfV's decision is a "first important step" that would help "counter the accusation of right-wing extremism ". The report by the BfV that led to the classification was later leaked to the public.