Rubio slams Germany for extremist label on right-wing AfD: 'Tyranny in disguise'

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Friday denounced Germany's designation of its far-right AfD party as an extremist group, calling the move "tyranny in disguise."

Germany's domestic intelligence service, in designating the AfD as an extremist group, handed authorities greater powers to monitor it and fueled calls for the party to be banned.

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"Germany just gave its spy agency new powers to surveil the opposition," Rubio said in a post on X. "That's not democracy -- it's tyranny in disguise."

"Germany should reverse course," he said.

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The AfD party finished second in German elections in February and doubled its score to more than 20 percent.

The BfV domestic intelligence agency, which had already designated several local AfD branches as right-wing extremist groups, said it decided to give the entire party the label due to its attempts to "undermine the free, democratic" order in Germany.

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"What is truly extremist is not the popular AfD -- which took second in the recent election -- but rather the establishment's deadly open border immigration policies that the AfD opposes," Rubio said.

This is not the first time that the administration of US President Donald Trump has waded into German politics, angering officials in Berlin.

Vice President JD Vance triggered alarm in a speech in February in Munich in which he said freedom of expression was slipping in Europe, naming Germany in particular.

Vance complained that the AfD party was being ostracized, called for this to end and met with its leader, Alice Weidel.