Far-right AfD peppers Germany’s top court with complaints, accused of blocking tactics

Germany's far-right AfD party has filed more than 20 cases at its top court alleging its rights are being infringed, according to a Reuters analysis of data, a tactic the AfD's critics say is meant in part to gum up democracy and the rule of law. The party, now running second in the polls and casting itself as anti-establishment, has 22 cases pending before the German Constitutional Court that were brought collectively by its 78 federal lawmakers, including nine filed in the past year. An AfD spokesperson said the filings are based on "principled matters of law" and pointed to three rulings in 2022, 2020 and 2018 in which courts had ruled that the government had infringed on the party's rights.