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The co-chair of the German Social Democrats, Saskia Eskenová, shocked people with her public statement. She suggested banning the right-wing extremist Alternative for Germany (AfD). The AfD, which is growing strongly in surveys analyzing the voting mood of Germans. Esken believes that the AfD uses “every topic for incitement,” which in her opinion is “clearly anti-democratic.” Co-chair of the Social Democrats She gave an interview to the DPA agency.
“There are a number of hurdles to overcome to ban a political party, but I believe we should continue to explore this option,” she said, stressing that the option needs to be discussed publicly and “shocked” voters.
The AfD now enjoys the support of 23 percent of voters in opinion polls. The ruling German Social Democrats have the support of less than 15 percent of the population. If he stays on track, he can win the state elections in Brandenburg or Thuringia and appoint his first prime minister, which would definitely be a success.
Meanwhile, local party organizations in Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia were directly classified as right-wing extremists. They were accused of representing fascist positions or of trying to change the constitution of the Federal Republic of Germany, which has been a very sensitive issue in Germany since the end of the Second World War.
“There can be no doubt about the right-wing extremist orientation of this party,” said Dirk-Martin Christian, chairman of the Saxon State Office for the Protection of the Constitution, in December last year. The foreign policy server drew attention to his words with the view that the AfD could remind Germans of what has happened to their country since the 1930s, when Adolf Hitler tried to seize power.
It is precisely because of Adolf Hitler that some German politicians are considering a controversial step: banning the AfD. However, the second part of politicians has doubts as to whether such a step would really slow down the rise of the extreme right on the political stage. The server of the magazine “Foreign Policy” recalls that, for example, the EU limited the flow of subsidies to the authoritarian regime of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, but this did not weaken Orbán.
According to the federal intelligence service “Foreign Policy,” leading members and officials of the Saxon AfD regularly express racist, Islamophobic and anti-Semitic sentiments. She called the Saxon state organization AfD an organization with “typical ethnic-nationalist positions” and said that both it and its nationwide youth organization worked with well-known neo-Nazi and officially banned movements such as the Reichstag.
German law gives the Constitutional Court the power to shut down a political party if it pursues unconstitutional goals and is capable of achieving those goals. In 2017, a German court decided not to ban the National Democratic Party of Germany (NPD), even though it served as the de facto successor to the Nazi Party. However, because it was too small a party with marginal influence, the court concluded that a ban was not necessary, which was also highlighted by Foreign Policy.
Lawyer and CDU MP from Saxony Marco Wanderwitz, who argues that “there is a good reason why (the German constitution) gives us the opportunity to ban a party,” as he told the daily newspaper, “because a defensive democracy must wield very sharp swords against its greatest enemies.” I have come to the conclusion that the AfD is now undoubtedly the radical right. They are up to no good and mean it. We must use all options available to us to defeat them. I’m afraid we won’t be able to get rid of them without a court order.”
The Social Democratic Interior Minister of Thuringia, Georg Maier, had the idea of changing the state’s laws so that the election winner would not automatically have the right to the office of Prime Minister and to the formation of the state government, which would allow smaller parties to do so to bypass the election winner and form a government without him.
“If you can’t win an election, you just have to change the rules. “Left-wing extremists call it democracy,” said Stefan Möller, co-chair of the AfD in Thuringia, in response to this suggestion.
Reflection on the subject of AfD ban or not submitted to Politico I’m publicist James Kirchick.
“It is up to all of us to put those who despise our democracy where they belong,” said Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier in a speech in August to mark the 75th anniversary of the adoption of Germany’s post-war constitution. Although Steinmeier did not mention the AfD or say what exactly needs to be done to put the opponents of the constitution where they belong, James Kirchick pointed out that the weekly newspaper “Der Spiegel” filed an appeal with the Federal Constitutional Court the day after the presidential election I have a speech about banning the AfD.
However, James Kirchick believes that banning the AfD would not be right, that it would not help. The journalist recalled that the former German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck had social democracy banned for twelve years in 1878. The Nazis banned all parties except their own. In East Germany after the Second World War, only approved parties were allowed to vote, and various organizations still spoke out against the regime. Although the German secret police, the Stasi, were after them. However, different political opinions could not be silenced.
“It is also important to note that while Germany today is considering banning a right-wing party to ‘protect’ democracy, Greece, Portugal and Spain have just begun their successful transition from military dictatorships to pluralistic ones by lifting the ban on communist parties “democracies,” he emphasized as a journalist.
James Kirchick also recalled that the AfD’s political strength today is primarily as a clear voice against Angela Merkel’s migration policy. As Chancellor, the same Angela Merkel advocated greening the German economy, which led to a sharp rise in energy prices, especially after the start of Russian aggression against Ukraine. Especially when the Germans under Merkel decided to shut down all their nuclear power plants.
And even if the AfD were banned, the problems that gave it political strength around 2015 would not disappear, Kirchick emphasized. It’s just that a new party will emerge with similar rhetoric and voters will switch to it.
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Democracy, Germany, Abroad, AfD, DPA, Foreign Policy, Politico, Alternative for Germany, Die Tageszeitung, AfD ban, Steinmeyer
Author: Miloš Polak
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