Germany‘s Verfassungsschutz Secret Service was abusing its “constitutional role in a legally impermissible manner” when it “stigmatises criticism of the capitalist system and the advocacy of its overcoming as ‘anti-constitutional’,” declared a legal brief submitted to the Berlin District Court by the German Socialist Equality Party (SGP) on 30 July.

In January this year, the SGP launched a lawsuit against its labelling by the Verfassungsschutz, in its public Report 2017, as “left-wing extremist” and an “object of observation.” The Federal Interior Ministry, which oversees the work of the Verfassungsschutz, responded with a detailed legal brief on 15 May. In it, the ministry declared “the advocacy of a democratic, egalitarian and socialist society,” the “agitation against so-called ‘imperialism’ and ‘militarism’,” and “thinking in class categories” to be unconstitutional.

The WSWS has already reported in detail on the SGP’s appeal and the Interior Ministry’s response.