The chaos in the Thuringian state parliament has reignited the debate about banning the AfD. For SPD leader Klingbeil, this is not initially a political question.
When considering a ban on the AfD, SPD leader Lars Klingbeil sees the experts as the first to take action. “The assessment is not a political one, but rather a legal one,” he said in a video interview with the German Press Agency. “This is now the task of the experts from the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, for example, who look at material and collect it.” If these experts come to the conclusion that the AfD is endangering the state and coexistence in Germany, “then we have to become politically active.”
A party ban can be applied to the Federal Constitutional Court by the Bundestag, Bundesrat or Federal Government. The AfD would have to be proven in the process that it is aggressively fighting against the constitution. The chaos in the constitutive session of the new Thuringian state parliament, where the AfD became the strongest force in the election on September 1st, has reignited the debate about a ban proposal. The Office for the Protection of the Constitution has classified them as definitely right-wing extremists there, as well as in some other federal states.
Klingbeil said that he continued to see his task as a political actor as leading the political fight against the AfD. The Brandenburg SPD Prime Minister Dietmar Woidke has shown that the AfD can be defeated – with fighting spirit, a clear attitude and good communication. “So it works. That’s the lesson from Brandenburg too.” The SPD had become the strongest force in Brandenburg, although it had been behind in the polls for a long time.
Source: Stern
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