A cohort of 113 members of Germany’s Bundestag parliament have signed a motion calling for the Federal Constitutional Court to consider banning the right-wing populist anti-mass migration Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.
With a legislative election looming in February following the collapse of the leftist-led “traffic light” coalition government last week, rival politicians appear to be growing interested in banning the AfD. If successful this censorious move would conveniently remove one of the country’s most popular parties from contention in the election.
Welt reports that 55 MPs from the Green Party, 32 members of the governing Social Democrats (SPD), 18 Left Party MPs, and seven MPs from the neoliberal Christian Democratic Union (CDU) supported the measure. Except for the CDU, the right-wing populist party has surpassed all the other parties supporting the measure and currently stands as the second-strongest party in Germany.
The motion accused the AfD of calling into question “human dignity and the prohibition of discrimination”.
“The rights of people with a migration background, people with disabilities or those with non-heteronormative sexuality, as well as members of indigenous national minorities and ethnic groups, are to be restricted or eliminated in favour of a nationalistic strengthening of a supposed Germanness, according to the will of the AfD,” the motion stated.
The MPs went on to accuse the AfD of being “in part the extended arm of authoritarian foreign regimes,” in an apparent reference to the party’s advocacy for peace talks to end Russia’s war with Ukraine. They also asserted that the party had downplayed the crimes of the National Socialist (Nazi) regime of Adolph Hitler, a charge which the party has consistently denied.
One of the leading proponents of banning the AfD, CDU parliamentarian Marco Wanderwitz, said: “We submitted the motion on Wednesday in order to retain the opportunity to vote on this motion in view of the premature end of the legislative period as parliament. We are firmly convinced that the AfD is unconstitutional and represents a serious threat to our democracy.”
It is unclear if the attempt to ban the party will be able to be accomplished before the elections in February, however, with the current level of support falling well below the 369 votes needed to pass the motion in the Bundestag.
A key impediment has been the unwillingness of CDU leader Friedrich Merz, who has so far refused to back the move, branding the effort as “unproductive”. Merz, a potential next chancellor of Germany, has also argued that the evidence against the AfD has not amounted to the level needed to ban a political party.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.