German alliance of organizations launches campaign to ban far-right party AfD

An alliance of German organizations this Monday launched a campaign calling for the banning of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party as unconstitutional, after the party came second in the European elections.

Buchenwald Concentration Camp Memorial director Jens-Christian Wagner said one of the lessons of the Nazi era was that “unconstitutional parties must be prevented from abusing democracy to abolish it.”

The campaign “Defend Human Dignity: Ban the AfD Now” aims to obtain a parliamentary majority in support of the proposal in the German Parliament (Bundestag) in the coming weeks.

In addition, organizers announced a series of protests against the party, including at the national congress to be held at the end of the month in Essen (west).

Banning the AfD has been discussed repeatedly in the country in recent months, although critics of the possibility note that the procedures would be very lengthy and that the meaning of the decision that would ultimately have to be made by the Constitutional Court is unknown. .

In this regard, they also expressed concern about the consequences of banning a party that enjoys strong voter support.

However, campaign officials argued that “a ban on the AfD is not only possible, but also politically necessary,” German news agency DPA reported.

According to the German news agency DPA, the campaign argues that “a ban on the AfD is not only possible, but also politically necessary.”

“In recent years, the AfD has become a party dominated by far-right forces. It spreads racist nationalist ideas, ridicules democracy and attacks the rule of law,” campaign sources say.

The campaign was launched following a report in Correctiv, a German non-profit investigative newsroom based in Essen, about a far-right meeting in Potsdam in November 2023 that also included AfD representatives and plans to discuss expulsions of migrants and their descendants from Germany.