A ban on the NPD – which now calls itself Die Heimat – failed almost exactly seven years ago. The Federal Constitutional Court has now taken action on party financing.
After the Karlsruhe ruling to stop state funding of the former NPD, numerous politicians called for the possible effects on the AfD to be examined. “It cannot be the case that the constitutional state finances its own enemies. The consequences of the verdict must now be examined quickly and carefully,” said Green Party parliamentary group deputy Konstantin von Notz to the newspapers of the Funke media group (Wednesday). Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) had previously announced that he would analyze the possible effects of the ruling.
According to the annual report, the AfD had income of around 24.9 million euros in 2021. Of this, around 44 percent came from state funds. Around 26 percent were donations. The party generated additional income, among other things, from membership fees, elected representatives’ fees and corporate activities.
For comparison: Of the FDP’s income of around 51.5 million euros in the same year, around 31 percent came from state party financing. According to the annual report, around 35 percent of the approximately 86.7 million euros in income that the Greens collected in 2021 was state funding.
The amount of government funding is determined by the so-called roots in society, which is measured by votes as well as donations and contributions.
Party as the sole heir to a fortune worth millions
Examples of large donations from which the AfD benefited: A building contractor, who also appears at radical right-wing rallies, gave the AfD a donation of around 265,000 in January 2023. Money had also flowed into the party’s coffers after an engineer from Bückeburg named the party as the sole heir to his million-dollar fortune in his will in 2018.
In March of last year, the Berlin-Brandenburg Higher Administrative Court confirmed a ruling by the Berlin Administrative Court from 2021, according to which the AfD had to pay a high fine for accepting a donation. The donation was transferred by two companies from Switzerland to the AfD Bodenseekreis district association, as the Higher Administrative Court announced. Since the party law prohibits parties from accepting anonymous donations, the Bundestag administration had set sanctions payments of around 396,000 euros to the AfD, which corresponds to three times the donation amount.
The AfD had taken the view that the approximately 132,000 euros transferred in several tranches, which were transferred to the account of the district association of then top candidate Alice Weidel before the 2017 federal election, were donations to Weidel that were not subject to the party law.
Habeck: High legal hurdles
In 2020, the AfD gave in to another legal dispute with the Bundestag administration over inadmissible party donations for its chairman Jörg Meuthen and accepted a fine of almost 270,000 euros.
Meanwhile, Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck (Greens) pointed to high legal hurdles when banning parties and restricting financial flows. “This is a question that the courts have to clarify based on the evidence that the services determine,” said Economics Minister Habeck to the Welt television station. The open society also gives its enemies a lot of space, and that also applies to the AfD. He emphasized: “We must stand by the principles of an open society.”
CSU General Secretary Martin Huber said that the exclusion of the AfD from party financing must be examined urgently and comprehensively. “The AfD is being watched by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution because it is unconstitutional. The verdict could be a blueprint for the AfD,” he told the editorial network Germany (RND).
The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution has classified the AfD as a suspected right-wing extremist case. This also enables the use of intelligence resources, such as observation. The AfD wants this classification to be withdrawn. The party’s lawsuit before the Cologne Administrative Court was unsuccessful. A decision on this from the Higher Administrative Court in Münster is expected in March.
Nationwide demonstrations
The Federal Constitutional Court ruled on Tuesday that the right-wing extremist National Democratic Party of Germany (NPD), which renamed itself Die Heimat in June, would be excluded from state party funding for six years. It was the first case of its kind at Germany’s highest court. The federal government, Bundestag and Bundesrat submitted the application.
Applications to ban the NPD failed before the Federal Constitutional Court in 2003 and 2017. A possible ban procedure against the AfD is currently being discussed. This could only be requested by the federal government, the Bundestag and the Bundesrat.
SPD General Secretary Kevin Kühnert said that the Federal Constitutional Court’s decision was based on years of research to prove the party’s actions against the free-democratic basic order. “In the short term, such steps against the AfD are not feasible, and that is why we should not leave the protection of our constitution to the Karlsruhe judges alone,” he told the “Westfälische Nachrichten”.
According to police information, more than 900,000 people nationwide demonstrated against right-wing extremism and for the protection of democracy last weekend. Since then there have been further protest demonstrations, some in smaller cities. Posters directed against the AfD were also held up during the demonstrations.
The protests were triggered by revelations by the Correctiv research center about a meeting of radical right-wingers on November 25th in Potsdam, in which some AfD politicians as well as individual members of the CDU and the very conservative Values Union took part. The former head of the right-wing extremist Identitarian Movement in Austria, Martin Sellner, said he spoke about “remigration” at the meeting. When right-wing extremists use the term, they usually mean that large numbers of people of foreign origin should leave the country – even under duress.
Source: Stern
I have been working in the news industry for over 6 years, first as a reporter and now as an editor. I have covered politics extensively, and my work has appeared in major newspapers and online news outlets around the world. In addition to my writing, I also contribute regularly to 24 Hours World.
