Full story
AfD ban debate
A legal report presented in Berlin argues that the German far-right party Alternative for Germany (AfD) is unconstitutional and says a ban request would probably succeed under Article 21, Section 2, of the Basic Law.
“The organization GFF states that the party violates the principle of democracy and human dignity, and highlights the racist character of its political program”
El País says the NGO Society for the Rights of Freedom (GFF) analyzed nearly three million social media posts, 77,000 parliamentary documents, and 55,000 press releases, and that its legal director and head of the expert report, Bijan Moini, said during the presentation that the conclusion was unequivocal: AfD is unconstitutional.
The report frames the test as whether a party opposes one of the three pillars of the liberal democratic order—human dignity, the democratic principle, and the rule of law—and says the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany has made clear that opposing one principle means opposing the liberal democratic order as a whole.
El País adds that declaring AfD unconstitutional would be within the remit of the Federal Constitutional Court at the request of the Parliament (Bundestag), the Bundesrat (Federal Council or upper house), or the Government.
In the same debate, El País reports that Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt opposes opening a ban procedure and believes AfD should be eliminated through politics rather than prohibited.
Court, intelligence, and protests
Heidi.news describes Correctiv’s revelations about a “secret meeting” near Potsdam on November 25, 2023, and says the investigative media revealed the presence of several AfD members at the meeting.
Heidi.news says the meeting took place in Villa Adlon and that Martin Sellner outlined his conception of “remigration,” with talk of a plan to forcibly deport 2 million German residents, foreigners or of foreign origin.
In parallel, El País reports that a Cologne court ruling in February concluded that intelligence services should refrain from labeling the party generally as far-right, at least until AfD appeals against this designation are resolved.
El País also says the GFF expert report aims to fill gaps left by an earlier report from the Office for the Protection of the Constitution on AfD, which it says focused almost exclusively on Islamophobia and on the ethnic-cultural concept of the people that the party defends.
El País quotes GFF board member Dana-Sophia Valentiner saying that if a process against AfD were opened now, it would probably be successful, and it ties the ban framework to aims or behavior that aim to eliminate or undermine the liberal democratic order.
What’s at stake next
El País says the report’s authors argue that if AfD’s objectives were realized, consequences would be far-reaching, including that democratic competition would be significantly weakened and “systematic violations of human dignity” could be expected.
“Al bando i vetero-fasci del Regno di Germania”
The report also warns that a free democracy would no longer be conceivable if, for making political decisions rather than criminal conduct, one has to fear being prosecuted and ending up in jail, with Moini warning that images of well-known politicians behind bars recur on AfD’s social networks.
El País reports that the GFF experts recalled about 200 requests by AfD politicians to bring leaders of other parties to court for decisions legitimate from a democratic point of view, and it says that if several cases of political persecution led to criminal prosecutions, it would deter others from participating in democratic discourse.
In a separate thread of the same national debate, Slate.fr frames the constitutional question as whether Germany should declare enemies illegal to safeguard democracy, and it cites Article 21.2 of the Basic Law as the basis for declaring parties unconstitutional.
Slate.fr adds that the Basic Law of Bonn provides that parties whose aims or the attitude of their members tend to distort or destroy the fundamental order of freedom and democracy, or to endanger the existence of the Federal Republic of Germany, shall be declared unconstitutional.
