Germany’s Interior Minister bans “Compact” magazine

According to their ministry, forces have been searching the organization’s premises as well as the homes of leading players, management and shareholders in Brandenburg, Hesse, Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt since the early hours of the morning. The AfD sharply criticized the ban.

Among other things, a house in Falkensee, Brandenburg, was searched; the address of this house is mentioned in the magazine’s imprint. The aim of the raid was to confiscate assets and evidence, it said in a statement.

“Mouthpiece of the right-wing extremist scene”

Faeser justified the ban by saying that “Compact” is a “central mouthpiece of the right-wing extremist scene”. She said: “This magazine incites hatred in an unspeakable way against Jews, against people with a migration background and against our parliamentary democracy.” The ban shows “that we are also taking action against the intellectual arsonists who are stirring up a climate of hatred and violence against refugees and migrants and who want to overcome our democratic state”.

As early as 2022, the German Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution ruled that the magazine, headed by editor-in-chief Jürgen Elsässer, “as a multimedia company, brings anti-democratic and anti-human dignity positions into society.” The magazine’s leading figures maintain contacts with important actors of the so-called New Right.

Sharp criticism from the AfD

It is not enough for an organization to be banned if it represents an anti-constitutional stance. Another requirement is that it does so in an aggressive and combative manner. The German Interior Ministry states in its statement that there is a risk that readers and viewers of “Compact’s” media products will be incited by the publications, which also “openly propagate the overthrow of the political order and encouraged to act against the constitutional order.”

The AfD sharply criticized the ban. Faeser’s decision was “a serious blow to press freedom,” said party leaders Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla in a joint statement. Banning a press organ was “a denial of discourse and diversity of opinion.” Faeser was thereby abusing her authority “to suppress critical reporting.”