Germany’s Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution has designated AfD as a right-wing extremist organisation, citing xenophobic stances as the reason. #EuropeNews
Germany’s highest court can ban parties that want to dismantle democracy. But that process can only be initiated by the federal government, the federal parliament or a majority of the state parliaments. NOT by the court itself.
Before the election, there was a group of MPs spanning over almost all parties who advocated to initiate said process, but they couldn’t form a majority. Other MPs and the government had argued to wait for the report that just now came out and confirmed AfD to be enemies of the democratic order.
So now they don’t have any excuses, really. They are morally, but not legally, obligated to ask the court to ban AfD. Said court has signalled in the past that they have enough evidence and that they are eager to start.
Whether or not it will happen is not clear, but it has never been more likely.
I’ll try to summarize.
Germany’s highest court can ban parties that want to dismantle democracy. But that process can only be initiated by the federal government, the federal parliament or a majority of the state parliaments. NOT by the court itself.
Before the election, there was a group of MPs spanning over almost all parties who advocated to initiate said process, but they couldn’t form a majority. Other MPs and the government had argued to wait for the report that just now came out and confirmed AfD to be enemies of the democratic order.
So now they don’t have any excuses, really. They are morally, but not legally, obligated to ask the court to ban AfD. Said court has signalled in the past that they have enough evidence and that they are eager to start. Whether or not it will happen is not clear, but it has never been more likely.
That sounds promising!