SPD co-leader Esken had shown herself open to a possible AfD ban procedure. This met with opposition from party friend Schneider: the instrument was neither promising nor tactically clever. The FDP also criticized.
The Federal Government’s Eastern Commissioner, Carsten Schneider (SPD), has shown skepticism about a possible AfD ban procedure – and thus clearly contradicted co-party leader Saskia Esken. Schneider told the “Süddeutsche Zeitung” that he doesn’t believe in banning a party at all. It is very difficult to enforce and he considers the chances of legal success to be slim. But the political dimension is crucial.
“If we ban a party that doesn’t suit us but is consistently ahead in the polls, then that will lead to even greater solidarity with it,” said Schneider. “And that even from people who are not AfD sympathizers or voters. The collateral damage would be very high.”
Schneider, on the other hand, emphasized that the goal must be to provide the AfD with a clear view of its content and to make it clear to voters “what the consequences of its substantive positions would be. She voted against the minimum wage. She wants to abolish the inheritance tax, so less redistribution.” When it comes to social policy, the party maintains “the backward social image of the 1950s, which must be terrible for many East German women.”
Kubicki: “Make better political offers of your own”
In polls for the federal election, the AfD is well ahead of the governing parties SPD, Greens and FDP in second place behind the CDU/CSU with more than 20 percent. In Saxony, Thuringia and Brandenburg, where new state parliaments will be elected in September, surveys show the AfD at the top by a significant margin. In Saxony, Thuringia and Saxony-Anhalt, the party is classified as “certainly right-wing extremist” by the state offices for the protection of the constitution.
There was also headwind for Esken from the coalition partner FDP: “Anyone who wants the AfD to disappear from the scene again should make better political offers of their own and not constantly talk about banning the party,” said party vice-president Wolfgang Kubicki to the newspapers of the Funke media group. “We have failed if the voters turn away from us and no one else.”
The parliamentary managing director of the Union faction in the Bundestag, Thorsten Frei, cited “good government work, less arguments and politics for the center” as a recipe against the AfD. “Such stupid discussions are more like grist for the mill of the right-wing party,” wrote Frei on X.
Göring-Eckardt refers to the constitution
“Such a ban on parties is rightly subject to high hurdles. But I am convinced that we should keep checking this,” Esken told the dpa news agency. “It is important that there is talk about a ban on the AfD and that this also wakes up voters.”
The Vice President of the Bundestag, Katrin Göring-Eckardt (Greens), also spoke out in favor of a substantive debate with the AfD – but did not rule out a ban procedure. “If a party directly questions our free democratic basic order, our constitution and its fundamental rights, the constitutional bodies must of course deal with it,” she told the newspapers of the Funke media group. It’s not about banning a party because you don’t like it.
Frank Capellan, DLF, tagesschau, January 3rd, 2024 1:00 p.m