The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution's categorisation of the AfD as a confirmed right-wing extremist party may have consequences for civil servants. Employers in particular must now keep their eyes and ears open. This is because endeavours to impair or abolish the free democratic basic order are incompatible with the civil service, which has to stand up for its preservation. For this reason, loyalty to the constitution is one of the core duties of civil servants. In addition, human dignity, the principle of democracy and the rule of law are irrevocable principles of all state action. Civil servants must therefore work to uphold the free and democratic basic order both within and outside of their service.

If their behaviour casts doubt on their loyalty to the constitution, it must be clarified whether and to what extent this constitutes a breach of duty and a loss of trust in the civil servant. This is done in disciplinary proceedings in which the circumstances of the individual case are determined and conclusively assessed. The employer is also obliged to do this. Most recently and prominently, this has happened with police officers who participated in racist chats.

However, membership of a party classified as definitely right-wing extremist does not yet constitute proof of unconstitutional behaviour on the part of the individual civil servant. Payment of the membership fee is also unlikely to be sufficient to prove anti-constitutional behaviour. Although both of these factors give reason to take a closer look, they do not make it unnecessary to clarify the other behaviour. The situation is different when civil servants fulfil (leading) party functions or actively participate in AfD party events. In this case, it can hardly be disputed that the civil servant supports unconstitutional goals. The same can be assumed if they disseminate party political objectives or post anti-constitutional content on social networks.

Whether the civil servant is then to be removed from the service, i.e. whether he can no longer be trusted to perform his duties properly, must be the result of each individual disciplinary procedure. There is no automatic mechanism. In any case, if there are significant activities in favour of the party that is considered to be right-wing extremist, removal from the service is the guiding principle of the disciplinary response.