Germany is considering a ban on the country’s right-wing, populist Alternative for Germany (AfD) Party, with a number of high-ranking politicians and NGOs ironically suggesting the measure could be used in an effort to ‘defend democracy.’ The party has made a number of electoral gains in recent years, culminating in a recent landmark victory which saw the party take over its first district council this summer.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz‘s Social Democrats (SPD), now polling behind the AfD, has called upon the Federal office for the Protection of the Constitution to recognize the AfD as right-wing extremists and, therefore, have the party banned. German president Frank-Walter Steinmeier told the country’s domestic intelligence agency: “…we all have it in our hands to put those who despise our democracy in their place”.
The German Institute for Human Rights (GIHR) also claimed that “the AfD have reached a degree of dangerousness that they can be banned according to the constitution” and suggested this was due to the party’s right-wing extremist goals and ethno-nationalist positions.