More than 100 members of the Bundestag, the lower house of the German parliament, have made application for a ban on the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), conservative Bundestag member Marco Wanderwitz said on Wednesday. Wanderwitz, a member of the Christian Democrats (CDU), currently the largest opposition party in the house, said he had secured the support of 113 members from various groups in the 733-member Bundestag. The members are calling for the Constitutional Court to rule on whet

Summary

Over 100 German legislators have proposed banning the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, citing its aggressive and combative actions against the constitution.

The proposal, which requires support from the Bundestag, the upper house, or the federal government, aims to demonstrate the AfD’s extreme right-wing activities.

  • cows_are_underratedEnglish
    130·
    8 days ago

    This isn’t entirely true. They are backing the check by our Bundesverfassungsgericht (our supreme court) if the AfD is against the constitution. That’s a significant difference. The article makes it sound like the Bundestag can just ban the party, but that(luckyly) isn’t the case(because if it would any political party could just ban the enemies(as it happened in the 1930s)). Instead the Bundestag, or the Bundesrat(its made of representatives from our states and) , have to order the Bundesverfassungsgericht to check if the AfD is a party hostile to the constitution.

    Also worth mentioning, that if this goes through, we won’t see a result in the near future. Such a case takes about 4-6 years to be resolved.

    • barsoap@lemm.eeEnglish
      371·
      8 days ago

      The BVerfG can be surprisingly fast if things are sufficiently clear-cut and/or urgent. For one, the AfD will have to have sufficient discipline to not make death threats over this, siege the court, such things. I’m sure their higher-ups have game-planned this but I would be surprised indeed if fascists manage to not be, well, fascists, when backed into a corner.

      The legal question isn’t actually complicated, there’s been enough cases so that the court won’t have to develop law. It’s mostly going to be hearing evidence.

      • Syntha@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        5·
        8 days ago

        Everyone involved says this will take years to resolve, furthermore it’s questionable if the evidence is even sufficient for successfully banning the AfD. This is in no way a clear cut case.

        • cmhe@lemmy.worldEnglish
          1·
          7 days ago

          From the two unsuccessful ban trials of the NPD, I do not have much hope of this one succeeding. Sadly.

    • jagged_circle@feddit.nlEnglish
      29·
      8 days ago

      Israel has banned literal terrorist parties from running. Sometimes its a good idea to ban a party. See Nazi party.

      • cows_are_underratedEnglish
        8·
        8 days ago

        I never said that it isn’t good to ban the AfD. I just mentioned the mistake the article makes and that its good that only the highest court is able to do that.

      • acargitz@lemmy.caEnglish
        6·
        8 days ago

        Yet the kahanists came back and now they’re running the National Security ministry and Netanyahu depends on them.