Warning about “privacy certificate”
Lindner rejects AfD ban proceedings
May 17, 2024, 1:49 a.m
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The debate about a ban on the AfD has flared up again. Now Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner has also spoken out on the topic – and shows little enthusiasm. He fears that if the AfD fails, the process will do more good than harm.
The FDP chairman Christian Lindner rejects attempts to have the AfD banned by the Federal Constitutional Court. “The hurdles for banning a party are very high. At the end of the day, a clean bill of health should not be issued by rejecting a ban application by the AfD,” the Federal Finance Minister told the newspapers of the Funke media group. The clearance certificate refers to a certificate of exoneration that was issued in the post-war period in the course of denazification to people who were considered incriminated because of NSDAP membership. According to Lindner, the confrontation with the AfD must take place in democratic competition so that the AfD cannot present itself as a victim.
The background to the newly flared debate about an AfD ban procedure is a ruling by the North Rhine-Westphalian Higher Administrative Court in Münster. On Monday, it ruled that the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution’s classification of the AfD as a suspected right-wing extremist case was legal. This means that the Office for the Protection of the Constitution can continue to use intelligence resources to monitor the party.
Lindner emphasized that efforts must be made to reach AfD voters. “And not just with the moral pointing finger, but also with concrete solutions. I recommend sober, objective toughness,” added the FDP leader. Many people voted for the AfD out of frustration over unregulated migration since the era of Chancellor Angela Merkel. But there is now a new realism in European refugee policy.