Thousands demand AfD ban on protests across the country

On a nationwide day of action, people in numerous German cities demonstrated for a ban on the AfD. Called up to the rallies under the motto “No more excuses – AfD prohibition now” had the network “together against right” and other civil society organizations. The central rally took place in Berlin at the Brandenburg Gate. The police estimated the number of participants in the late afternoon to around 4,000, the organizers spoke of around 7,500 demonstrators. According to the police, around 2500 people took to the streets in Munich. A total of rallies were announced in more than 60 cities.

The organizers are calling on the Bundestag, the Federal Council and the new federal government to initiate a ban proceedings against the AfD before the Federal Constitutional Court. The AfD is a concrete danger, but it can be stopped, the initiators said. The Basic Law provides for this. You shouldn’t watch and wait. “We have to defend democracy and fundamental rights.”

The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution had upgraded the AfD to “secured right -wing extremist endeavor” at the beginning of May. In contrast, the party is defending itself with an urgent application. Until a decision by the responsible administrative court of Cologne, the domestic secret service puts the new classification on ice and therefore only continues to lead the AfD as a so -called suspicion.

The political debate about the opportunities and risks of a ban application have again gained driving. CDU general secretary Carsten Linnemann confirmed his skepticism in the “Welt am Sonntag”: “All well-known legal experts say that such a procedure would be very difficult according to the current situation and that the outcome is uncertain.”

CSU boss Markus Söder commented similarly. “I thought that a ban procedure,” he told the “Bild am Sonntag”. A corresponding procedure would be a “exaggerated reaction”. “By the way, nobody knows how it turns out and then a new group is just establishing themselves. You cannot now do this game to ban a party every three years.”

Green Group leader Britta Haßelmann assessed such statements as a trivialization of the AfD. “If you rest like Carsten Linnemann, say that protest or frustration cannot be forbidden, you negate the dangers that work out of the AfD and downplayed a party that attacks our constitution,” she told the editorial network Germany (RND). An examination is required immediately and an initiation of a prohibition procedure. “The CDU must now face the dangers that work out of the AfD at the latest and position itself clearly.”