An online petition has been running since November calling for AfD politician Höcke to be deprived of some basic rights. The signature list with more than 1.6 million signatories has now been handed over to politicians in the Bundestag.
More than 1.6 million people have signed a petition online calling for a so-called forfeiture of fundamental rights for AfD politician Björn Höcke. The initiator of the signature collection, Indra Ghosh, has now handed them over to politicians from the Greens, SPD and Left in the Bundestag.
The petition was started last November under the name “Defensive Democracy: Stop Höcke”. As of Thursday afternoon, more than 1,675,800 people had signed online. The signature collection is not yet over. According to the website, the new goal of 1,725,000 votes should now be achieved.
She is “pleased that something is starting to move in the country,” said Green party leader Britta Haßelmann at the handover of what the organizers say is the largest online petition in Germany to date. It is an “incredibly encouraging signal” that civil society senses the dangers posed by right-wing extremism and knows that it now depends on each and every individual.
No public office, no candidacy
The aim of the required forfeiture of fundamental rights is, among other things, that Höcke loses the right to stand for elections and to hold public office. Höcke is currently the AfD parliamentary group leader in the Thuringian state parliament.
To do this, the federal government would have to submit an application to the Federal Constitutional Court for the forfeiture of fundamental rights in accordance with Article 18 of the Basic Law. This article states that a person forfeits certain fundamental rights if he or she “abuses these fundamental rights to fight against the free democratic basic order.” These fundamental rights include, among others, freedom of expression and freedom of the press, freedom of assembly as well as the secrecy of letters, postal and telecommunications, the right to property and the right to asylum.
The Federal Constitutional Court would have to determine which rights are restricted to what extent in the event of a forfeiture of fundamental rights.
Bianca Schwarz, ARD Berlin, tagesschau, February 1st, 2024 4:36 p.m