Party congress: SPD drives work on AfD ban proceedings

The SPD is driving the debate about a ban on a ban against the AfD. At the federal party conference in Berlin, she demanded immediate preparations for such a procedure. “The moment the protection of the constitution says, this is a secured right -wing extremist party, there must be no tactics,” said party leader Lars Klingbeil.

The delegates decided an application in which it is said: “Now the time is that the constitutional organs’ applicant will create the prerequisites in order to immediately apply for the AfD’s unconstitutionality.” A federal-state working group should collect material for this.

The demand for the initiation of a prohibition procedure against the AfD had become louder after the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution had classified the party as secured right -wing extremist. However, due to the legal approach of the AfD, the classification is initially on ice. At the request of the Federal Government, Bundestag or Federal Council, the Federal Constitutional Court would have to decide on a party ban.

The Greens had also recently spoken out for a working group. “We have to act early before this party continues to undermine systematic democracy,” said its party leader Felix Banaszak to the newspapers of the Funke media group.

Chancellor Friedrich Merz sees the calls “very skeptical” after a ban procedure. According to the CDU/CSU parliamentary manager Steffen Bilger (CDU), the previous findings for a ban on a ban are not sufficient. And: “At the latest after the” Compact “judgment of the Federal Administrative Court, it must also be clear to everyone what high legal hurdles a ban would have,” he told the Funke newspapers. Just a few days ago, the Federal Supreme Court declared the ban on the right -wing extremist magazine to be illegal.

Thuringian Interior Minister: “When, if not now?”

At the SPD party conference, several speakers warned that the AfD wanted to abolish democracy – and it was not far away from the step into a government. The Thuringian Interior Minister Georg Maier was confident that the party was to be demonstrated. If the evidence is good and stable, the prohibition procedure must be initiated. “Who, if not us? When if not now?” Asked Maier.

Of course, a ban on a ban also risks that show the failed procedure for the NPD, the Interior Minister admitted. “But I now believe that the risk of doing nothing is now significantly greater than the risk of collecting a defeat in court.”