EU Germany considers ban on far-Right AfD - Call to 'defend democracy' as party surges to 21% in opinion polls

Germany is debating whether to ban the far-Right Alternative for Germany (AfD) as the party surges to 21 per cent in the polls, amid warnings from intelligence officials that its members are becoming increasingly extreme.

Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the German president, warned in a speech to the country’s domestic intelligence agency that “we all have it in our hands to put those who despise our democracy in their place”.

His speech at the castle where the German post-war constitution was created has widely been seen as support for a ban after Thomas Haldenwang, the domestic spy chief, warned about growing Right-wing extremist influence in the party.

Mr Haldenwang said: “We see a considerable number of protagonists in this party that spread hate against all types of minorities here in Germany.”

It comes amid warnings of the increasing influence of Björn Höcke, the leader of the AfD in the eastern state of Thuringia.

Mr Höcke, a former history teacher, is known for his Hitler-esque language – with his allies sweeping the board for European lists at the party’s conference in Magdeburg in August.

In a rare move, the respected Der Spiegel news magazine weighed into the debate with a leader titled: “Ban the enemies of the constitution!”

It warned that “the AfD has become more and more radicalised. It’s time to defend democracy with better weapons”.

The co-leader of Olaf Scholz’s ruling Social Democrats also said a ban should be considered if the AfD is categorised as a group of “proven Right-wing extremists” by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution.

However Friedrich Merz, the leader of the Christian Democratic Union, warned that “banning parties has never actually solved political problems”.



Meanwhile, the German Institute for Human Rights, a non-governmental organisation, declared last week that “the AfD have reached a degree of dangerousness that they can be banned according to the constitution”.

They warned in an analysis that the party is actively and methodically trying “to implement its racist and Right-wing extremist goals” and “shifting the limits of what can be said so that people can get used to their ethno-nationalist positions”.

Germany has a troubled history of parties being banned, with Otto von Bismarck, the country’s first chancellor, banning the Social Democrats for disloyalty to the Kaiser.

When the Nazis came to power, they banned all other parties.

The German Democratic Republic (East Germany) also banned other parties not affiliated with the ruling Socialist Unity Party.

The post-war German constitution, keen to avoid this authoritarian excess, made a party ban legally difficult. Attempts to ban the neo-nazi NPD party in 2003 and 2017 both failed at the highest court.

Volker Boehme-Nessler, a political scientist, said he does not believe the party meets the high legal hurdles for a ban.

He warned that a failed attempt would only give the AfD an additional boost in the election campaign, he told eastern German broadcaster MDR.

“You can’t simply ban a party that gets 20-30 per cent approval” in various states, he added.

Germans are evenly split on whether the party should be banned, with 47 per cent of the country in favour of a ban and 47 per cent against.

A ban is more popular in the west and among liberal Greens.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/08/13/afd-party-ban-germany-far-right-extremists/ (Archive)

 

[Dog-O-Tron 5000v5.0]

And then one day, for no reason at all...

Haha, let's protect democracy by banning a political party who threatens the existing rulers. My God Germany really is a banana republic.

They'll do it there, and then it will be


I'm pretty sure now I voted in the last real election in 2016. The Republic phase of the United States is over.

 

[Candlelight Desolation]

The AFD isn't even that right wing. They are barely centrist by the standards of most people in the west held as little as 20 years ago. 15 years ago they would have been simple center.

This is complete madness. They are desperate because the AFD wants the slightest level of control when it comes to migration to Germany, and most basic of checks to stop welfare queens, and a actual attempt at improving the lives of regular germans.

It's insane talking to people online, especially germans, and seeing their minds simply shut down and declare the AFD are literally nazis. There is never even a argument, not even the sort of desperate slander you would see with Trump when it comes to US Politics. It's just a fact and so self evident a example isn't needed to them.

Very telling how many people in Germany are flipping out this badly over a center right party. I await the day a full-blooded hardline right nationalist party gets in power in some European country somewhere and tells Uncle Sam to get lost when he pitches a fit about it. Adolf Hitler is the eternal boogeyman of globohomo and left wingers in general it's surreal.

 

[Duke Nukem]

And then one day, for no reason at all...



They'll do it there, and then it will be
View attachment 5270315

I'm pretty sure now I voted in the last real election in 2016. The Republic phase of the United States is over.

We already have people who think that certain political parties should be banned and that people should be arrested over a stupid joke that they posted on the internet twenty years ago.

And people laugh at me when I say that once they're done with gun control, they'll go for speech control. Because hey, if you're gonna wipe your ass with the Bill of Rights, why not use the whole sheet?

 

[Gog & Magog]

Alice Weidel is the co-chairwoman of the AfD and party member since 2013. She is also a lesbian. Below is her partner, Sarah Bossard. They have two boys together.
https://www.tagesanzeiger.ch/viele-schwule-und-lesben-moechten-einfach-ihre-ruhe-579283866998

And more info on Mrs. Weidel's interesting credentials.
https://foreignpolicy.com/2017/09/2...-who-just-lead-germanys-far-right-to-victory/

Weidel was born and educated in West Germany, and after college, she lived in China for a year, working at Bank of China, and learned Chinese. Following a stint at Goldman Sachs in Frankfurt, she completed her doctorate in economics with a scholarship from the Christian Democrats’ foundation, the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung. From there she spent time at other way-stations in the private sector, including at Rocket Internet, signing up with the AfD in 2013, the year of its founding.

 

[Alabama Gamer]

View attachment 5270398
Alice Weidel is the co-chairwoman of the AfD and party member since 2013. She is also a lesbian. Below is her partner, Sarah Bossard. They have two boys together.
https://www.tagesanzeiger.ch/viele-schwule-und-lesben-moechten-einfach-ihre-ruhe-579283866998
View attachment 5270477
And more info on Mrs. Weidel's interesting credentials.
https://foreignpolicy.com/2017/09/2...-who-just-lead-germanys-far-right-to-victory/

I remember a brief to-do a month or two ago when she tweeted out a chart about AfD's electoral support which labeled East Germany "Central Germany".

 

[LurkTrawl]

A democracy in which you control the outcome, isn't.

Way to show your hand retards.

 

[Day of the Cope]

AfD wouldn't even exist if they stopped importing sand niggers by the plane load. Literally the only reason people consider voting for the AfD is because people are tired of feeling like a minority in their own country.

 

[Omen_Sulk]

View attachment 5270398
Alice Weidel is the co-chairwoman of the AfD and party member since 2013. She is also a lesbian. Below is her partner, Sarah Bossard. They have two boys together.
https://www.tagesanzeiger.ch/viele-schwule-und-lesben-moechten-einfach-ihre-ruhe-579283866998
View attachment 5270477
And more info on Mrs. Weidel's interesting credentials.
https://foreignpolicy.com/2017/09/2...-who-just-lead-germanys-far-right-to-victory/

So just another controlled opposition.

 

[Mordecai "3 Finger" Brown]

Very telling how many people in Germany are flipping out this badly over a center right party. I await the day a full-blooded hardline right nationalist party gets in power in some European country somewhere and tells Uncle Sam to get lost when he pitches a fit about it.

I don't know much about Euro politics.

Does Orban in Hungary count?

Is Hungary too irrelevant? Does Orban get the Trump treatment?

I remember a brief to-do a month or two ago when she tweeted out a chart about AfD's electoral support which labeled East Germany "Central Germany".

I feel thick about this.

Does "Central Germany" imply that Poland is rightfully German? Or that Germany should get Konigsberg back?

Very telling how many people in Germany are flipping out this badly over a center right party. I await the day a full-blooded hardline right nationalist party gets in power in some European country somewhere and tells Uncle Sam to get lost when he pitches a fit about it.

I don't know much about Euro politics.

Does Orban in Hungary count?

Is Hungary too irrelevant? Does Orban get the Trump treatment?

I remember a brief to-do a month or two ago when she tweeted out a chart about AfD's electoral support which labeled East Germany "Central Germany".

I feel thick about this.

Does "Central Germany" imply that Poland is rightfully German? Or that Germany should get Konigsberg back?

 

[Omen_Sulk]

don't know much about Euro politics.

Does Orban in Hungary count?

Is Hungary too irrelevant? Does Orban get the Trump treatment?

Hungary has issues, Orban is trying to remain relatively neutral and isolated. But USAID won't let him stay that way.

 

[Nicholas II of Russia]

Democracy is when you ban all political parties except yours.

 

[Lord Xenu]

known for his Hitler-esque language

Both spoke German. Clearly, he is about to fire up the ovens and soap machines.

an attempt at a serious formulation: liberals (not used here as a pejorative) believe the AfD's beliefs are immoral.

The essence of the authoritarian managerial class ideology always boils down to "the ends justify the means". They dont have a monopoly on that kind of thinking, but they've gained enough actual power to implement their shitty ideas all over the west.

 

[ShitLurker]

Depends on what part of Europe you’re talking about.

If you mean "based slavs" I thought that too, but Poland seems to have gone full retard thanks to the prospect of fucking with russians and the other euro regions just need to end an election cycle with a Globohomo stooge and it's over. Getting those EU gibs have a cost and sooner or later they will smother you into liking it.

The AFD isn't even that right wing. They are barely centrist by the standards of most people in the west held as little as 20 years ago. 15 years ago they would have been simple center.

This is complete madness. They are desperate because the AFD wants the slightest level of control when it comes to migration to Germany, and most basic of checks to stop welfare queens, and a actual attempt at improving the lives of regular germans.

It's insane talking to people online, especially germans, and seeing their minds simply shut down and declare the AFD are literally nazis. There is never even a argument, not even the sort of desperate slander you would see with Trump when it comes to US Politics. It's just a fact and so self evident a example isn't needed to them.

Yep, that's always the most insane part. Same deal in my patch of land, the super giga nazis got a win in a region and it's a "democratic emergency" and have some buddies that any mention of the "right wing polititians" makes them go into irate rants about nazis and so on when I can only think "they are all giving you the same shit, this will only affect you if you are a fucking degenerate or want more mass migration for reasons outside of "being a good person"". They are all tepid social democrat parties at the end of the day (and fucking commies, but that's just the next step after socialism) and in my land it is pretty much a given it's social democracy or bust. So any sort of real actual changes are absolutely impossible, best you can hope to push back with is on the culture war front and uncontrolled immigration which seem like the only topics that actually move the needle, since economy is pretty much frozen in all the aisle outside of a few topics here and there.

 

[SIMIΔN]

As for banning a party, the actually Neo-Fascist Golden Dawn party was criminalised when some members killed a rapper.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pavlos_Fyssas#Death

Time will tell what happened. They were far less moderate than AfD, so it might be a bad example.

That 21% will soon become 31% or higher, thanks to these morons who think that banning things will stop them from being an issue.

Sadly they need far more than a plurality if they are not stop the establishment parties ganging up against them.

Alice Weidel is the co-chairwoman of the AfD and party member since 2013. She is also a lesbian. Below is her partner, Sarah Bossard. They have two boys together.
https://foreignpolicy.com/2017/09/2...-who-just-lead-germanys-far-right-to-victory/

That makes them even less Nazi. Nazis hated three things; Communists, Jews, and International finance. There were hard-socialist Nazis half-Jewish Nazis (like Milch) but no international bankers.

If you mean "based slavs" I thought that too, but Poland seems to have gone full retard thanks to the prospect of fucking with russians

Poland was the first government to recognise the Bolsheviks, even when the old regime was still in fighting shape, they suffered badly under the Soviet imposed communism, but they aren't free from blame.

 

[Balr0g]

As if a ban would do any good anyway. The AFD campaigns on being "ignored and oppressed by the establishment" And what does the establishment discuss? BAN BAN BAN. GONE. FOREVER. This is free advertisement for the party. And what next? _they might reform under the "totally not AFD" label and start again. They say that radicals rule the party but the opnly "radical" would be Björn Höcke who says some real stupid stuff but also started a imho much needed discussion about inclusion in schools

 

[Kane Lives]

I'm sure banning the AfD would go better than the last time Germany banned the NSDAP.

 

[Echo_Ender]

Thomas Haldenwang, the domestic spy chief, warned

How fucking Orwellian does your government have to be to just outright give someone the title of "Domestic Spy Chief"

I mean, we have them here too, but at least we give them titles like "FBI", "NSA", and "Homeland Security" to at least pretend to hide it.

Does Orban in Hungary count?

Is Hungary too irrelevant? Does Orban get the Trump treatment?

As much as it pisses the EU bigwigs off, Hungary is currently just too small to justify doing much about besides financially putting the screws to them.

And Orban is already persona-non-grata in most of the EU. That's about the closest to the Trump Treatment they can do to him without going all the way and false-flagging up some random criminal charges. They aren't prepared to do that. Yet.

Like someone said, Poland was very similar, but they've gone frothing-at-the-mouth full-retard mode over the Ukrain war. They'd sell out their whole country if it inconvenienced Russia.

 

[Diana Moon Glampers]

What a peculiar news article.

This article contains literally no information whatsoever on the actual right-wing positions held by this party that makes it worthy of moral condemnation or being banned from ballots.

Wouldn't that be a very important piece of information for any citizen seeking to become informed, regardless of whether they consider themselves left-wing or right? This is clearly not journalism, which exists to inform so that people can reach their own conclusions. It is propaganda, and only one conclusion is permitted.

 

[oh no its pipkun]

an attempt at a serious formulation: liberals (not used here as a pejorative) believe the AfD's beliefs are immoral. as they see it, the members of the AfD believe these things because they are immoral people. however, the German general public must largely be moral due to their support for the current leaders, and therefore cannot all be casually dismissed as inscrutable monsters. sure, a small part of society consists of unredeemables - this explains the AfD's baseline support - but the AfD's growing support, despite their obviously immoral and unacceptable beliefs, which are now being increasingly supported by the presumably moral members of society, can only be the result of some kind of brainwashing or rhetorical trickery. in essence, the liberals believe AfD is tricking people into supporting them through misinformation or other forms of brainhacking, and therefore, in order to protect the morality and integrity of the German state, as well as the fragile minds of the public, they must be stamped out by any means necessary. this is not antidemocratic because the AfD's support is not democratically legitimate. censuring them, therefore, is an act in defense of legitimate democracy.

its even easier: you cant tolerate the intolerant, you cant democratically elect undemocratic politicians.

Yes because censoring and banning political opposition will surely make people
who vote for them magically change positions and want to worship nigger muzzies.

this is germany not america. they have higher trust in draconian governments.

 

[Snekposter]

They'd sell out their whole country if it inconvenienced Russia.

Welcome to politics. I'm sure you can find a few countries in Latin America willing to do just that simply because they hate their neighbors that much. Besides, even by European standards Poland's treatment by its neighbors was unpleasant, Prussia and Russia deliberately encouraging a slide into anarchy for around a century before taking advantage of the ensuing chaos to divvy it up between them and Austria, gobbling the place up whole in a mere 23 years and three partition agreements. Over a hundred years of incredibly harsh Russian rule later, followed by the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact (and yet more incredibly harsh Russian rule with plenty of Poles still alive to remember it), and here we are, the Poles only tolerating the Germans thanks to those EU gibs the Germans provide.