In the days leading up to the federal election last February, the whole of Germany held its breath, waiting for the results and hoping for a brighter future. But sadly, this hope was misplaced.
When it was clear that the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party had won the second most votes (doubling its result from the previous election four years prior), I got a call from my friend who was crying. She didn't have a German passport and feared that someday, even if not today, she could be deported. In that case it wouldn’t matter that she had built up a whole life in Germany.
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A strong case for a constitutional ban
The AfD should be banned or at least restricted. People need to know how serious of a threat the party poses to the German political system, even more broadly, to democracy.
In Germany the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (or Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz - BfV) has the power to ban or closely monitor parties that might be a danger to the constitution.
Given that the BfV formally classified the AfD as a right-wing extremist group on Friday, the time to do so is now.
The BfV has only ever banned two parties in history: the Socialist Reich Party (SRP) and the Communist Party of Germany (KPD).
More recently there were attempts to ban the National Democratic Party of Germany (NPD), which was known to promote far-right, neo-Nazi and ultranationalist positions. The first ban attempt failed in 2003 due to procedural errors, and then a subsequent attempt in 2017 was dismissed because the party was ruled to have too few supporters to be considered a serious threat. (However the party did lose its public funding.)
But this isn't the case with the AfD, which has now clearly established itself as one of Germany’s top parties, yet holds positions that are similar to those of the NPD. Both parties oppose immigration, rail against non-traditional gender and family roles, and are critical of the European Union – arguing that Germany would be better off to leave it.
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Until recently, only some parts of the AfD were condemned by the BfV. Specifically, the party’s state branches in Saxony, Thuringia, and Saxony-Anhalt were all officially declared ‘unconstitutional’ by the authority.
In my opinion, the AfD’s state chapter in Thuringia, led by Björn Höcke, is the worst case of them all. Björn Höcke has made several public statements that should be taken as a warning as to the party’s goals: He has said, “Das Problem ist, dass Hitler als absolut böse dargestellt wird” (The problem is that Hitler is portrayed as absolutely evil).
He was also charged for incitement to hatred (or hate speech) on two separate occasions for saying, “Alles für Deutschland” (Everything for Germany) on stage at his rallies. The phrase is banned in Germany, because it was commonly used by the Nazi Party’s paramilitary group – the Sturmabteilung (SA). Höcke, who was a history teacher, denied knowing about the phrase’s historical context, but was ultimately sentenced to pay thousands of euros in fines.
The fact that Höcke is still an active member of the AfD demonstrates the values the party holds.
FACT CHECK: Are people punished for using Nazi slogans in Germany?
Why we should be concerned about ‘unconstitutionality’
Perhaps I need to back up a little, and explain what it means for a party to be ‘unconstitutional’.
The BfV defines a political party as ‘unconstitutional’ when it harms the dignity of human beings, the principle of democracy, and the rule of law.
The AfD, for example, does not see every human as equal and this is seen by the party’s policies that promote exclusion and xenophobia. These policies, if enacted, would harm the dignity of certain groups.
Article 3 of the German basic law states that all humans should be treated equally, regardless of different characteristics, such as “sex, descent, race, language, homeland and origin, faith, and religious or political views”.
German law also states that a public authority cannot stand above the law. To that end some AfD leaders have disregarded the state's monopoly on the use of force.
For example, former AfD spokesman Christian Lüth was let go in 2020, but only after being recorded suggesting that the AfD would actually benefit from Germany seeing more immigrants, and then adding, “We can still shoot all the [migrants] afterwards. That's not an issue at all. Or gas, or whatever you want.”
Despite his dismissal, the fact that the AfD allowed someone with such extreme views to represent them in a public role for years is deeply concerning.
The party’s influence has grown too great
Until recently the case for banning the AfD as a political party could have perhaps been disregarded due to the party’s lack of influence. But now that the AfD is the second strongest power in Germany, and officially deemed to be opposed to Germany’s “free and democratic order”, it’s time for the BfV to take action.
Again and again we’ve seen demonstrations with tens of thousands of protestors rise up in opposition to the AfD and its right-wing policies.
Meanwhile, AfD members haven’t shied away from voicing their intention to deport foreigners from Germany. The now infamous meeting in Potsdam that took place in November 2023, and was revealed by Correctiv in January 2024, made it clear that leading AfD figures want not only to deport refugees and asylum seekers but really anyone they see as ‘not German’ or ‘not assimilated’.
Another extremely alarming fact about that meeting is that it was attended not only by AfD members and right-wing extremists, but also members of the conservative Christian Democratic Union party (CDU), such as Ulrich Vosgerau (a judge), Alexander von Bismarck (a former mayor), Simone Baum (a municipal employee in Cologne) and several others. This is even more unnerving as the CDU is now the party set to lead Germany's federal government for the coming term.
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It’s understood that politics, not just in Germany but globally, have taken a sharp turn to the right in recent years. Currently we see Trump undermining democratic principles in the US and other right-wing parties rising in countries such as the Netherlands and Italy.
Germany is not an exception, but given its history most Germans agree it has an exceptional responsibility to ensure that extremist right-wing politics will not lead the country down a path that leads to tyranny, and mass murder, ever again.
INTERVIEW: Is Germany at risk of repeating its dark history?
An important step must be taken – either in the form of a full ban, or at least a warning serious enough to wake people up to the fact that the AfD is becoming a serious threat. We are long past this being optional: it has now become a necessity.
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