Vice Chancellor Habeck has accused the AfD of wanting to create a national-identitarian state. He expressed skepticism about a ban procedure. Constitutional lawyer Thiele goes to the daily topics from increased opportunities.
After a meeting of radical right-wing extremists became known, in which AfD members also took part, politicians continued to discuss possible ban proceedings against the party. Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck expressed caution in the debate and warned of the consequences if such a procedure failed.
In an interview with “Stern” he emphasized that the hurdles for a party ban process were “rightly very high” and “the damage from a failed ban process would be massive.” Therefore, the basis for such a procedure must be “absolutely legally binding”.
However, the Green politician does not want to rule out the option because, in his opinion, it is “becoming increasingly clear that the AfD wants to create a national-identitarian state,” said Habeck and emphasized:
If it is proven with certainty that a party wants to turn the country into a fascist state, it should be banned, no matter how strong it is. Either way, the democratic parties have to beat the AfD politically.
Faeser: Ban as a “constitutional last resort”
Before Habeck, Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser also told the SWR expressed that she considers a ban procedure to be possible, as well as a ban procedure against the Junge Alternative, the party’s junior organization. At the same time, she also highlighted the high hurdles of this “constitutional last resort”. The SPD politician warned that the other parties must first deal with the content of the AfD, because under no circumstances should the impression arise that a party ban is being called for because the politicians are not making any progress in terms of argument.
The CDU and CSU had argued similarly and took a rather negative stance towards a ban. The parliamentary managing director of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group, Thorsten Frei, emphasized that he did not want to imagine what a failure of the ban process would ultimately mean. Rather, the parties have “the task of canvassing for votes and ensuring that radical and extremist parties do not gain traction if possible.” CSU regional group leader Alexander Dobrindt also warned that the dispute with the AfD had to be conducted politically; it would not work legally.
A mosaic of actions, deeds and words
The Bundestag, Bundesrat or federal government would have to submit an application for a ban on the AfD. The basis for such a process is like putting together many mosaic pieces of actions, deeds, words and deeds of party members and officials. This is how Alexander Thiele, a constitutional lawyer from the Business & Law School Berlin, formulated the requirements in an interview with daily topics.
One difficulty here is that anti-constitutional statements must be attributed to the party as a whole, not just to individual members, said Thiele. This is what makes such a procedure so lengthy and complex, as this attribution must be absolutely legally binding. At the same time, the requirement of so-called potentiality must be met – a party must therefore be strong enough to implement suspected unconstitutionality.
In order to initiate a ban procedure, the necessary information must begin to be collected in good time, warned the constitutional lawyer. But in his view, the reports about the meeting between right-wingers and AfD members had added “a big piece of the puzzle” to support a possible procedure and it was “not unlikely” that a ban would have a good chance.
Acceptance of the ban among the population is questionable
But it is not just a challenge to legally enforce such a ban, warned Thiele. But also that it is accepted by the population, which becomes more difficult the more supporters the AfD can unite.
The state elections in Hesse and Bavaria in October had already highlighted the AfD’s upward trend: in Hesse it gained 5.3 percentage points to 18.4 percent of the vote. In Bavaria, the AfD achieved an increase of 4.4 percentage points and reached 14.6 percent.
This year there are state elections in Brandenburg, Saxony and Thuringia – surveys in all federal states currently show strong growth for the AfD, and in some cases the party could even become the strongest force as things stand.
Nationwide demonstrations against AfD
However, the meeting between right-wing extremists and AfD politicians sparked nationwide protests in recent days. On Tuesday, around 30,000 people took to the streets at a demonstration in Cologne.
There had previously been several demonstrations in various cities over the weekend, including Berlin and Kiel. On Monday evening, several thousand people took to the streets in Leipzig.