WASHINGTON

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio slammed Germany on Friday after that country’s intelligence agency classified the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) as a "proven extremist group."

"Germany just gave its spy agency new powers to surveil the opposition. That’s not democracy—it’s tyranny in disguise," Rubio wrote on X.

He said the AfD, which placed second in recent elections, is not extremist, but opposes "the establishment’s deadly open border immigration policies."

"Germany should reverse course," he added.

Germany’s Foreign Office responded to Rubio on X. “This is democracy. This decision is the result of a thorough & independent investigation,” it wrote. “It is independent courts that will have the final say. We have learnt from our history that rightwing extremism needs to be stopped.”

Germany’s Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) announced Friday that after a three-year investigation, it concluded the AfD is a “proven extremist group” that promotes an ethnic-based definition of citizenship and undermines the country's democratic constitutional order.

The designation enables authorities to conduct expanded surveillance of the party.