Early in the morning, the police searched buildings in four federal states. The search involved “Compact” and a film production. The Federal Minister of the Interior wants to take action against “intellectual arsonists”.
The “Compact” magazine, which the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution has classified as right-wing extremist, is no longer allowed to be published. Federal Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser (SPD) has banned the media company and Conspect Film GmbH. According to her ministry, a total of 339 officers searched the organization’s premises as well as the homes of leading figures, management and shareholders in Brandenburg, Hesse, Pirna in Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt. According to the information, a total of 14 properties were searched on the basis of a court order.
The aim of the raid was to confiscate assets and evidence, it said in a statement. Among other things, a house in Falkensee, Brandenburg, was searched, the address of which is given in the magazine’s imprint. Police officers carried copies of the magazine and technical equipment out of the building. According to the Federal Ministry of the Interior (BMI), cash, gold, merchandising items, stage equipment, vehicles and bank accounts were also confiscated. The “Compact” websites have been blocked.
“Compact” editor-in-chief Jürgen Elsässer spoke of an outrageous infringement on press freedom and told reporters: “What we have today in the Federal Republic of Germany is an undemocratic regime, like the SED regime was.”
Faeser justifies the ban by saying that “Compact” is a “central mouthpiece of the right-wing extremist scene”. She says: “This magazine incites hatred against Jews, against people with a migration background and against our parliamentary democracy in an unspeakable way.” 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”.
“Anti-democratic positions”
As early as 2022, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution ruled that the magazine, headed by editor-in-chief 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.
In the “Compact” online shop, you could recently buy a coin with the portrait of the Thuringian AfD state chairman Björn Höcke. Elsässer gets his audience cheering at events with slogans like “Ami go home and friendship with Russia”. The AfD’s top candidate in the European elections, Maximilian Krah, who has been criticized within the party after several scandals, was put on the cover by “Compact” as a “patriot” and “agent of the people”.
In order to ban an organization, it is not enough that it represents an anti-constitutional stance. Another requirement is that it does so in an aggressive and combative manner. The BMI stated 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 ministry also accuses the media company of having a “ethnic-nationalist social concept” and refers to its “rhetoric of resistance and revolution”.
Criticism of Faeser from the AfD – support from the Greens
The co-chairs of the AfD, Tino Chrupalla and Alice Weidel, wrote in a joint statement: “We are observing these events with great concern.” The ban is “a serious blow to press freedom.” Faeser received support from the Greens, among others.
Party chairman Omid Nouripour wrote on Platform X: “It is absolutely right that the BMI bans this anti-Semitic and racist medium.” Minister of State for the Media Claudia Roth (Greens) said: “Freedom of the press is a cornerstone of our democracy and quite rightly encompasses a wide area of protection.” However, if it is abused to act in an aggressive and combative manner against the free and democratic basic order, and in an aggressive and combative manner at that, then boundaries have clearly been crossed.
Approval also came from the Union faction. Faction vice-chair Andrea Lindholz (CSU) told the “Nordkurier”: “A medium in which month after month agitation against parliamentary democracy and hatred against minorities is stoked is not acceptable in Germany.” It would be wrong to link the ban in any way with censorship.
Hamburg’s Interior Senator Andy Grote (SPD) commented: “The successful blow against this anti-constitutional media of the New Right is a clear signal from the constitutional state to its enemies.”
Last year, Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) and Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock were guests in Falkensee in quick succession during the mayoral election campaign, which was now the focus of the searches. Scholz was shouted at and booed at the Europe Festival in June 2023. One group loudly shouted “warmonger”, “make peace without weapons” and “get out!”.
However, Elsässer does not only have friends in the town. A local resident told a reporter during the raid that he did not want to have anything to do with the publisher and its representatives.
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.
