AFD can be banned before the new election

Published 13 November 2024 at 07.13

Foreign. The immigration and war-critical Alternative for Germany (AFD), which is Germany's second largest party, may be banned even before new elections are held in the country early next year.

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Christian Democrat CDU politician Marco Wanderwitz has been one of the main proponents of the ban and hopes to pass a motion to start the legal process before the election.

– Our goal is to submit the motion and vote on it during this legislative session, Wanderwitz said, stressing that the process must “move quickly,” according to Zeit

New elections are due to be held in Germany on February 23, and the decision to do so was made after the left-liberal government's confidence figures hit rock bottom.

Marco Wanderwitz has pushed the ban issue for a year and is now taking advantage of the arrest of three people with links to extreme Saxon separatists, who according to him have ties to AFD, to attack the party. However, AFD denies any connection to the group.

Fria Tider has previously reported how Wanderwitz began his fight against banning the opposition party after personally losing an election to one of AFD's candidates:

< blockquote class="twitter-tweet">

Lost against AFD candidate – now he wants to ban the party:

The demands of the Christian Democratic top after the humiliation.

"High time to ban them ." https://t.co/2uRrbl02QE

— Fria Tider (@friatider) October 6, 2023

Politicians in Germany are divided on the issue. CDU party leader Friedrich Merz is reportedly no longer completely opposed to a ban, while the liberal FDP, which previously opposed the idea, is now edging towards a positive stance. The Greens advocate a gradual process with legal expertise.

A ban on the AFD would have to be approved by Germany's constitutional court, and the requirements for such a decision are very high. AFD, which receives between 16 and 20 percent of the vote in opinion polls, is the second most popular party in the country, and a ban could cause a national crisis.

At the same time, the outside world is following the development. Among other things, billionaire Elon Musk has shown some support for AFD on his platform X.