Dealing with the AfD: Dobrindt: SPD decision on AfD ban on “No order”

Federal Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt (CSU) sees no reason to take action according to the SPD party parliamentary decision to prepare an AfD prohibition application. “Decisions of the SPD’s party conference are not yet an order for the Interior Minister,” he said in the podcast “Table.Today”. The decision of the Interior Minister remains that there will be a federal-state working group for dealing with the AfD if the classification of the AfD should be confirmed as secure right-wing extremist.

At its federal party conference, the SPD had requested immediate serious preparations for an AfD ban. 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 Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution has classified the AfD as secured right -wing extremist, but because of the legal approach of the AfD, however, the classification is on hold. At the request of the Federal Government, Bundestag or Federal Council, the Federal Constitutional Court would have to decide on a party ban.

Minister of the Interior wants to check for the court decision

The Interior Minister of the federal and state governments decided in mid -June to set up a working group in the event that the Cologne Administrative Court should confirm the decision of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution. This is then intended to evaluate how the classification could affect the public service, the gun ownership and security checks. It is not about a ban procedure.

Dobrindt has repeatedly made it clear that he does not think of a ban procedure. He fears that such a procedure could steer water on the party’s mills. Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU) also sees such a step skeptical.

Greens are calling for special interior ministers for the AfD

The Greens, on the other hand, call for quick steps such as the convening of the special Interior Ministers’ Conference. “A lot of time has already been wasted here and the Vice Chancellor (Lars Klingbeil) has not yet been a driving force on the topic,” criticize the parliamentary manager Irene Mihalic and the Vice Group Chairman Konstantin von Notz. “The SPD Interior Minister must now act and, together with the Union as part of a federal-state working group, collect everything necessary to get a ban procedure on the way.”