parties
Faeser rejects AfD ban proceedings
“I’m counting on political debate,” says Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD). photo
© Bernd von Jutrczenka/dpa
Should a ban be brought against the AfD, which is classified as a suspected right-wing extremist case? The Federal Minister of the Interior sees this critically.
Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) does not believe in possible ban proceedings against them AfD. “I’m a lawyer. I don’t believe in providing such a simple answer to politically complex problems,” Faeser told Stern magazine. The constitutional hurdles for banning parties are rightly very high. “Of course, no one can rule out this as a last resort if the AfD develops into a kind of Höcke party everywhere. But I’m counting on political debate.”
The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution has classified the AfD as a suspected right-wing extremist case. In Thuringia, the AfD and its state executive committee spokesman Björn Höcke are classified and monitored by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution as proven right-wing extremists.
The SPD chairwoman Saskia Esken had not ruled out an attempt to ban the AfD if there were sufficient findings from the Office for the Protection of the Constitution. In August, Esken described the AfD as a “secure right-wing extremist party” in the ARD online program “Ask Yourself.” If the findings could be secured by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, then such a ban should also be sought. CDU leader Friedrich Merz, on the other hand, said in the ARD “Summer Interview”: “Party bans have rarely had any effect in the Federal Republic of Germany. The people who go astray politically still remain there. I think very little of it.”