With the German government collapsing, one of the main proponents of an Alternative for Germany (AfD) ban, CDU politician Marco Wanderwitz, is pushing for a speedy procedure right before new elections.
“Our aim is still to submit the motion and vote on it in this legislative period and thus get the proceedings at the Federal Constitutional Court underway,” he told Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland. He said that things now have to “move quickly.”
As Remix News has long reported, MP Wanderwitz, who was defeated by an AfD politician in local elections but gained re-entry into the Bundestag due to being on the CDU party list, has been pushing for a ban for a year. In order to submit a motion to ban the AfD, he needs 37 fellow MPs, or 5 percent of the Bundestag MPs, to vote with him.
Wanderwitz is attempting to capitalize on the arrest of three individuals from the Saxon Separatists group who had links to the AfD, with Wanderwitz claiming that the group has connections to right-wing terrorism. The AfD has indicated that it has no ties to the Saxon Separatists and disavows the group.
Notably, many on the left have open connections to left-wing extremist groups, and even the country’s current interior minister, Nancy Faeser, wrote for Antifa Magazine shortly before she won her position, a group known to be funded by a government-designated left-wing extremist group.
Politicians in Germany have been split on the issue. CDU leader Friedrich Merz is allegedly no longer fundamentally opposed to a ban, but claims he wants to observe new developments. The FDP, which was once against the move, is now moving closer to a ban. Notably, both parties stand to gain voters from the rival AfD should a ban move forward.
The Greens, meanwhile, want a gradual process towards a ban, including consulting with legal experts.
Wanderwitz himself sees a short window for a ban to come about, at least while he is leading the charge. He is set to retire from politics, which means by the time the next government is voted in, he will no longer be a part of it.
No matter what happens, a ban on the AfD could take years. Any final ban would have to be approved by the Federal Constitutional Court, and the burden for such a ban is supposed to be very high. Notably, the AfD party routinely polls between 16 and 20 percent of the national vote, and is the second most popular party in the nation. The courts have never banned such a popular party, setting the stage for a potential national crisis should the motion go through.
Another wild card in a potential AfD ban is Donald Trump and Elon Musk. Musk has come out as a quasi-supporter of the party on his X platform. Any move on democratic backsliding in Germany, including a ban on a major opposition party, could result in U.S. sanctions and increased tensions with a Trump-led United States.
Why is there such a negative reaction from some about AfD?
They keep saying “far right”, but the policies of AfD that I’ve read about don’t sound extremist. Maybe I’m missing something.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 9, 2024Just last week, Musk called Chancellor Olaf Scholz a “fool,” in the latest sign that tensions are heating up between the new American power bloc and the left-liberal EU elite.
