The leaders of the SPD and Green Party factions want a ban of the Alternative for Germany (AfD), the second-largest party in the country and the top opposition party, before the next election. The Greens in particular are now urging parliament to submit a motion to ban the party as soon as possible.
The Green party wants the Bundestag to submit a new motion to the Constitutional Court, which would have a final say on banning the party. The original ban motion was initiated by CDU MP Marco Wanderwitz, who retired from politics and is no longer in the new Bundestag, but who is still actively urging the party to be banned.
The Green Party’s managing director, Till Steffen, is putting the pressure on to continue the ban motion “as soon as possible.” The Greens have long pursued a ban against the AfD, as Remix News has previously reported.
The last motion was signed by 100 parliamentarians from all parties, with the exception of the AfD and Free Democrats (FDP). In the new parliament, the FDP is no longer represented.
— Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) February 24, 2025
AfD's Alice Weidel issues a stark warning to Friedrich Merz:
"If the CDU commits electoral fraud against its own voters by forming a coalition with the left, the next election will come sooner than you think.
Then, we will overtake the CDU as the strongest force!" pic.twitter.com/qJ4PRki24F
However, there is one current hiccup, which is the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV). The politicians interested in a ban want the BfV to upgrade the designation of the AfD to a “confirmed right-wing extremist” party. So far, the party has only been labeled a “suspect case” by the powerful domestic intelligence agency, however, in certain states, It is already a “confirmed” case.
The problem is that the BfV currently does not have a president, as the previous one, Thomas Haldenwang of the CDU, already left his position to run as an MP. Haldenwang was blatantly partisan and routinely attacked the AfD in an effort to sink the party.
Due to the absence of a president, the expected report from the BfV to confirm the party as “right-wing extremist” has been delayed. The BfV is unlikely to get a new president before the new chancellor is sworn in. There are worries though from the left that time is running out to ban the party.
The SPD wants to wait for the report to move forward with a ban, but the SPD group manager Katja Mast says the “AfD poses a serious threat to democracy.”
Why is there such a rush when elections are likely four years away? The reason is that the Constitutional Court can take years to decide a case, which means there are fears from the left that the AfD party may be able to run in the next elections.
— Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) December 19, 2024
With arrests and house searches soaring in Germany over "insults" to politicians, AfD leader Alice Weidel calls out this worrying trend.
"But when the German citizens revolt, they are met by Internet spies and reporting centers of a taxpayer-funded NGO-Stasi. And a… pic.twitter.com/jjBHxqoLVI
The CDU and CSU are biding their time and say they will not decide on a ban until the BfV releases their report, but it is perhaps a foregone conclusion they will support such a ban, with a few dissenters.
The Greens are furious that the report is not being submitted fast enough.
The Federal Office for Consumer Protection cited the election campaign as the reason for postponing it. And the election is over,” said Steffen, who says the report not being released yet is “incomprehensible.”
Not everyone believes a ban is possible at this point. In an interview with Remix News, Junge Freiheit editor-in-chief Dieter Stein said he did not believe a ban of the AfD is possible at this point.
The party just hit a new polling high of 23.5 percent in the latest Insa poll, making it difficult to imagine the government banning a party that has nearly a quarter of all voters backing it. However, the EU mainstream may have been encouraged by the results in Romania, which saw the top contender, Călin Georgescu, arrested and banned from running in the presidential election.
— Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) January 13, 2025
Thierry Breton's statement on canceling Germany's elections translated to English.
Breton said if the EU Commission decides that the election in Germany was subject to "foreign interference," they would annul the election as they did in Romania's presidential election pic.twitter.com/3433nU8ya9
