German intelligence may label the youth wing of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party as an extremist movement.

The Cologne Administrative Court made the ruling on Monday.

The verdict is not yet legally binding, as the AfD and its youth organization can lodge an appeal against it with a higher court in the state of North Rhine Westphalia, where Cologne is located.

Germany's intelligence services had previously classified the youth organization as a suspected case.

An appeal against this decision was rejected by the Cologne Administrative Court. In the next instance, the Higher Administrative Court will deal with this issue in mid-March.

In April 2023, the intelligence services had announced that there were indications that the AfD youth organization, Junge Alternative (JA), had accumulated evidence of aspirations against the free democratic basic order.

The Junge Alternative is therefore being categorized and treated as a confirmed right-wing extremist organisation. The AfD and the JA filed a complaint against this in June 2023 and filed an urgent appeal against the classification.

The Cologne Administrative Court denied the urgent appeal.

The observation by the intelligence services does not constitute a measure "directed against the existence of the AfD, but serves to clarify whether a party - or in this case its youth organization - is pursuing anti-constitutional goals," the court stated.

The admissibility of such an investigation is assumed by the constitution. In the case at hand, the JA is certainly an extremist organization, the court said.

"The actual indications of anti-constitutional endeavors have become more certain since the court's ruling of 8 March 2022, in which the JA was classified as a suspected case."

The youth organization continues to represent a concept of ethnic descent. The exclusion of "ethnic foreigners" is a central idea of the JA and therefore an offense against human dignity, the court explained in the 70-page grounds for the decision.

Moreover, Germany's basic law does not recognize a concept of ethnicity that is exclusively based on ethnic categories, it said.

"In addition, the JA continues to engage in massive anti-foreigner and, in particular, anti-Islam and anti-Muslim agitation. Asylum seekers and migrants are generally suspected and belittled. Immigrants are generally labeled as parasites and criminals or disparaged in other ways, thereby disregarding their human dignity," the court wrote.

The JA is acting against the principles of democracy at all political levels. The Federal Republic of Germany is equated with dictatorial regimes, "in particular the Nazi regime and the former East Germany."

Germany's Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said the Cologne Administrative Court's confirmation of the categorization of the JA as right-wing extremist shows that the instruments of the rule of law to protect democracy are working.

"Today's decision clearly shows that we are dealing with massive contempt for humanity, racism, hatred against Muslims and attacks on our democracy," she said on Tuesday according to her ministry.

"We will continue to take action against this with the means of the rule of law."

The head of the intelligence services, Thomas Haldenwang, sees the denial of an urgent application by the AfD and the youth wing of the party as confirmation of his assessment.

"I welcome the decision of the Cologne Administrative Court," Haldenwang told dpa. "It confirms the [intelligence services] categorization of the Junge Alternative as a proven extremist organization."

In recent weeks, thousands of people rallied against far-right extremism and the Alternative for Germany (AfD) political party.

The wave of protests was prompted by revelations in news reports that AfD officials joined a private meeting in Potsdam in November with far-right extremists to discuss strategies to force immigrants out of the country.