Alexander Dobrindt made the remark after the country’s domestic security service officially labeled the right-wing party “extremist”
Incoming German Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt has spoken out against banning the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, days after the country’s domestic security service (BfV) officially designated it a “confirmed extremist entity.” Several other senior center-right politicians have echoed his opinion.
While the BfV’s decision announced last Friday grants the authorities the unrestricted right to surveil the AfD’s activities, the power to declare a party unconstitutional lies exclusively with the Federal Constitutional Court.
Speaking to Germany’s ARD broadcaster on Sunday, Dobrindt said, “I am convinced that the AfD doesn’t have to be banned out of the way,” but rather consigned to insignificance through good governance. He also called for an open discussion over the reasons that the AFD has become so popular.
In a snap election in February, the right-wing party came in second, behind the center-right Christian Democrats. Recent polls show the two parties neck-and-neck, with one survey by the Forsa Institute putting the AfD one percentage point ahead.
Also on Sunday, Dobrindt told broadcaster ZDF that a ban on the party’s activities would only reinforce its narratives.
In an interview with Bild over the weekend, CDU Secretary General Carsten Linnemann said that “most voters vote for the AfD out of protest,” adding that “you can’t ban protest.”
Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann argued that an entity being extremist does not necessarily mean that it can be banned right away. He further criticized politicians who have been quick to demand an AfD ban even before the BfV has issued its full report into the party’s activities.
In explaining its decision last week, the agency cited the “extremist nature of the entire party, which disregards human dignity,” as well as the AfD’s “prevailing understanding of the people based on ethnicity and descent.” The latter is said to be “incompatible with the democratic basic order.”
Meanwhile, on Monday, dpa news agency quoted Daniel Tapp, a spokesperson for AfD co-leader Alice Weidel, as saying that the party is filing a lawsuit against the BfV in the administrative court in Cologne.
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