AfD on public safety

The AfD wants to expand immigration law as a tool against crime committed by foreigners. Convicted foreign offenders would have to be expelled, and people classed as security threats could be held in preventive detention.

The AfD wants tougher rules for foreigners who commit crimes. Convicted foreign offenders would have to leave the country. Dangerous people could be locked up as a precaution. Convicted offenders should not get a German passport.

The platform bases these demands on what it describes as a rising share of foreigners in violent, sexual and drug offenses. Violent offenders and terrorists from abroad would be denied a right to stay. The duty to expel would be stated in the criminal verdict itself and then enforced consistently. Preventive detention would be possible for foreign Gefährder (people considered security threats) and terrorists. Anyone convicted of a crime would be barred from naturalization.

The AfD wants to fight organized crime as well as clan and gang crime with more investigators and tougher rules. Assets gained through crime would be confiscated, and offenders and their relatives would have to prove where large assets came from.

The AfD wants to act against criminal gangs and clans. There would be more investigators with better equipment. The state would take away money that comes from crime. Offenders and their families would have to explain where their wealth comes from.

Investigating authorities would get considerably more staff and equipment, the job would be made more attractive, and officers would be better protected. Following the Italian model, a legal duty would require proof of origin for substantial assets that cannot be accounted for. Foreign offenders could be deported without delay, with their assets seized beforehand to cover damages. A law would prevent the targeted infiltration of investigating authorities. The states would receive a larger share of tax revenue to strengthen prosecutors and courts.

The AfD wants to tighten juvenile criminal law because, in its view, it no longer fits the growing number of young offenders. Children would be criminally responsible from age 12, and juvenile law would apply only up to the 18th birthday.

The AfD wants stricter rules for young offenders. Today, people can be punished only from age 14. The AfD wants this from age 12. From age 18, adult criminal law would always apply.

The platform points to more juvenile and young adult offenders, describing people with a migration background as especially prominent, and to more children suspected of crimes. The age of criminal responsibility would drop from today's 14 to 12. Juvenile law would no longer apply to young adults aged 18 and over. Repeat and high-intensity offenders would be jailed promptly. Biological age assessments would be carried out routinely when age is in doubt, for serious offenses and for repeat offenders.

The AfD wants police officers to receive uniform, higher pay nationwide, better equipment and better social protection. At the same time, police commissioners, internal reporting offices and tightened disciplinary rules would be scrapped, which the platform sees as tools for exerting political influence on officers.

The AfD wants to pay police officers the same and better everywhere. They would get better weapons and equipment. The AfD wants to abolish police commissioners. These are offices that look into complaints about the police. Officers should not be fired for political reasons.

The plan includes bonuses for hazard, overtime and special deployments, also for emergency responders. The employer would pay for disability and professional liability insurance and guarantee legal protection in work matters; survivor benefits after a fatal on-duty accident would rise. Security agencies would not be headed by political appointees. The platform rejects checks on officers' political views, the reversed burden of proof in disciplinary proceedings and immediate dismissal for political reasons. Police powers for prosecution and searches would be continually adapted to crime trends.

The AfD wants to strengthen the justice system with more staff and modernized procedural rules. Probation on prison sentences would be possible only after a minimum portion has been served, and third-country nationals could serve their sentences in third countries.

The AfD wants more staff for the courts. People with a prison sentence would first serve part of it. Only then could they get probation. Probation means the rest of the sentence is suspended. Foreigners from non-EU countries could serve their time abroad.

The platform names better organization of the judiciary and effective legal protection for citizens as its goals. The procedural code, which it describes as dating from the 19th century, would be modernized. The offense itself and its consequences would count as additional grounds for detention. Short-term inmates and people serving jail time in place of an unpaid fine would be housed separately from regular prisoners. Imprisonment in third countries would follow the Danish model.

The AfD wants to fight extremism from the right, the left and from religious motives, and says the state currently neglects left-wing extremism. Violent far-left organizations would be banned and the Antifa classified as a terrorist organization.

The AfD wants to act against every kind of extremism. It says the state does too little against left-wing extremists. Violent left-wing groups would be banned. Showing their symbols would be a crime. The Antifa would count as a terror group.

The platform names right-wing extremism, left-wing extremism and religious, mostly Islamist extremism as opponents of a democracy able to defend itself. For violent far-left organizations, it considers cutting public funding insufficient. Instead it calls for bans and for making the use of their symbols a criminal offense. The Antifa would be given the status of a terrorist organization.

The AfD wants to make it a criminal offense to publicly call for the establishment of a caliphate. Foreign nationals who take part in such rallies are to be deported. The platform argues that the demand is hostile to the constitution.

Some people call for a caliphate at protests. A caliphate is a state run by Islamic rules. The AfD wants to punish this demand. Foreigners who take part should have to leave Germany.

According to the platform, some Muslims living in Germany raise this demand at events and demonstrations. The AfD considers it incompatible with the free democratic basic order and calls for a criminal offense. For foreign participants, the legal basis is to be created to end their residency and deport them. Koran schools that teach content hostile to the constitution are also to be banned. The platform calls political Islam the greatest danger to Christian-Western culture, while also affirming freedom of religion and its appreciation of integrated Muslims.

The AfD wants to make it a crime to act as a so-called Friedensrichter (informal arbitrator who settles disputes under Sharia). In neighborhoods the platform calls no-go areas, the state is to step in with raids and checkpoints.

In some neighborhoods, informal judges settle fights between people. They are not real judges. The AfD wants to punish their work. The police should do more checks in these neighborhoods.

The platform regards this activity as vigilante justice that conflicts with the state's monopoly on force; such rulings are to have no legal effect. As consequences it lists revoking residence permits, ending asylum status where applicable, and confiscating assets earned this way. Anyone who engages such an arbitrator is to be treated as an instigator. In the AfD's view, Muslim-influenced parallel societies have emerged in which the rule of law is losing ground. Funding, raids and checkpoints are to be used in response.

The AfD rejects state spyware (Staatstrojaner), blanket data retention and comprehensive video surveillance. It sees a trend toward a surveillance state and argues that existing laws and enough staff would suffice.

The AfD wants less surveillance by the state. Cameras should not be everywhere. The state should not use spy software on phones and computers. It should also not store everyone's connection data.

The platform is critical of what it sees as growing restrictions on basic rights in the name of security. In the AfD's view, the goals could often be met by enforcing current law effectively and deploying enough personnel. Video surveillance everywhere would at best treat symptoms. The party understands basic rights as citizens' defenses against the state that must not be hollowed out.

The AfD wants to build up the Federal Police legally, in staffing and in technology so it can protect Germany's borders. It cites migration, cross-border crime and terrorism as reasons.

The Federal Police should be able to protect the borders better. It should get more powers and modern technology. Officers should get better pay. They should be able to retire at age 60.

Better pay and benefits are meant to make the job more attractive. Operational officers are to retire at 60, with leadership staff on a scale based on years of service and age. On the technical side, the platform calls for modern search technology and electronic surveillance systems. Legally, Section 71 of the Residence Act is to be broadened so that the Federal Police has general authority as a border agency away from official crossing points as well.