parties
SPD leader Esken: AfD ban must be further examined
SPD leader Saskia Esken had already brought proceedings to ban the AfD into play in August. photo
© Bernd von Jutrczenka/dpa
The AfD has recently achieved one election success after another. This year it could continue like that. SPD leader Esken speaks of a “great danger” for democracy in Germany.
Regardless of all electoral successes AfD ban proceedings against the party remain an option for SPD leader Saskia Esken. “Such a ban on parties is rightly subject to high hurdles. But I am convinced that we should keep checking this,” Esken told the German Press Agency. “It is important that there is talk about a ban on the AfD and that this also wakes up voters.”
SPD leader calls AfD “clearly anti-democratic”
To justify this, Esken said that the AfD was part of a right-wing extremist network, kept lists of unwelcome critical journalists and set up reporting portals for teachers who were critical of the AfD. “She uses every topic to incite people. For me, that is clearly anti-democratic,” emphasized Esken. “The AfD mocks democracy and the rule of law and wants to destroy them.”
Esken first brought proceedings to ban the AfD before the Federal Constitutional Court into play in August. According to the Basic Law, a party can be banned if it takes active and combative action against the free democratic basic order. A ban procedure in Karlsruhe can be applied for by the Bundestag, Bundesrat or Federal Government.
Esken emphasized that it is the responsibility of the constitutional protection offices to continually shed light on the threat to democracy posed by the AfD. If they come to the conclusion “that a party as a whole must be considered right-wing extremist, then the sword of ban must also be drawn.” The AfD in Saxony, Thuringia and Saxony-Anhalt is currently classified as “certainly right-wing extremist” by the state offices for the protection of the constitution.
Esken: “The current surveys are a warning to us”
The AfD recently made significant gains in state elections in West Germany and won mayoral and mayoral elections in East Germany. In all polls for the federal election, the party is well ahead of all three government parties SPD, Greens and FDP with more than 20 percent in second place behind the CDU/CSU.
Esken warned of the consequences of further electoral successes for the AfD this year. “The current polls are a warning to us,” she said. “We will make it clear in the next few months that our country is threatened with great damage if the AfD gains political power. Because that would be a major break and a great danger for democratic culture, for our common good and our economic location.”
In September there will be elections in three eastern German states: Saxony, Thuringia and Brandenburg. In all three countries, the AfD is at the top of the polls, sometimes by a significant margin. It cannot be ruled out that it could win an absolute majority of parliamentary seats in at least one of the countries and nominate a prime minister.