In addition, the party must intend to impair or eliminate the free democratic basic order. Elimination means “the abolition of at least one of the essential elements of the free democratic basic order or its replacement by another constitutional order or another system of government”.
Seems like a catch 22. They would need the party to be in power and to try and dismantle the democratic elements before they get a ban. But wouldn’t it be too late then? Because if they’re in power, what’s stopping them from reducing the courts to puppet shows? (like arguably what’s slowly happening in the US) or what happened in the 1940s.
From what I can tell (I am an outsider), the party’s manifesto seems to aim to do exactly that. Is that not a reasonable enough reason? I know they aren’t outright nazis themselves, but I’ve heard whispers and about connections to those who are openly nazis themselves. Like elon Musk who is openly a nazi.
Are the courts confident the Afd won’t pull a Nazi third reich? I wonder if the checks and balances in germany are stronger than those in other countries. In the end, it will only matter to whom the police listens to.
Banning them seems like a question of political will, instead of having the right procedure in place.
Absolutely. The AfD is careful to walk the line. What they want according to their program is abhorrent and stupid but not illegal. That’s why no party was banned since the 50s, parties know what they can and can’t state publicly.
Okay, that was strange. So Afd has now been labelled a far right extremist party, a few days after we had this discussion.
Is this a sign of political will to ban them?
Kommt ein Verbotsverfahren? Mit der Neubewertung durch das Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz dürfte die Debatte um ein Verbotsverfahren gegen die AfD neu entfacht werden. Allerdings gibt es keinerlei Automatismus: Die Bewertung als “erwiesen rechtsextremistisch” ist weder die Voraussetzung dafür, noch ist ein Verbotsverfahren die zwangsläufige Folge.
Translation:
Will a ban procedure be implemented? The reassessment by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution is likely to reignite the debate about banning the AfD. However, there is no automatic process: The assessment as “proven right-wing extremist” is neither a prerequisite for it, nor is a ban procedure the inevitable consequence.
The reassessment means that more resources can be invested and that the intelligence services have more tools at their disposal to monitor the party e.g. spying on them and not solely relying on monitoring the media. I think it also means that civil servants cannot be members of the party.
Seems like a catch 22. They would need the party to be in power and to try and dismantle the democratic elements before they get a ban. But wouldn’t it be too late then? Because if they’re in power, what’s stopping them from reducing the courts to puppet shows? (like arguably what’s slowly happening in the US) or what happened in the 1940s.
From what I can tell (I am an outsider), the party’s manifesto seems to aim to do exactly that. Is that not a reasonable enough reason? I know they aren’t outright nazis themselves, but I’ve heard whispers and about connections to those who are openly nazis themselves. Like elon Musk who is openly a nazi.
Are the courts confident the Afd won’t pull a Nazi third reich? I wonder if the checks and balances in germany are stronger than those in other countries. In the end, it will only matter to whom the police listens to.
Banning them seems like a question of political will, instead of having the right procedure in place.
Absolutely. The AfD is careful to walk the line. What they want according to their program is abhorrent and stupid but not illegal. That’s why no party was banned since the 50s, parties know what they can and can’t state publicly.
Okay, that was strange. So Afd has now been labelled a far right extremist party, a few days after we had this discussion. Is this a sign of political will to ban them?
I don’t think so.
https://www.tagesschau.de/inland/innenpolitik/verfassungsschutz-afd-102.html
Translation:
The reassessment means that more resources can be invested and that the intelligence services have more tools at their disposal to monitor the party e.g. spying on them and not solely relying on monitoring the media. I think it also means that civil servants cannot be members of the party.
Oh that’s interesting. These allowances and restrictions seem useful, so this labelling of Afd as what it is isn’t a nothing changes move.
Thank you for your insights.