Monday, June 30
SPD calls for AfD ban, citing “clear extremism”
The SPD has officially launched efforts to ban the AfD. At their party congress in Berlin on Sunday, delegates voted unanimously to set up a federal working group tasked with collecting evidence of the far-right party’s unconstitutionality- evidence they say is already “overwhelming.”
“The nationalist wing dominates the party,” reads the resolution, which accuses the AfD of undermining Germany’s Basic Law and systematically degrading public trust in democracy. With calls for “remigration” of people with migration backgrounds, the SPD says the AfD violates human dignity and wants to dismantle the liberal democratic order.
The move comes amid growing alarm over the AfD’s rise, particularly in the east, where the party consistently leads in polls. In Brandenburg, a new survey shows the AfD at 32 percent, nine points ahead of the SPD.
While the SPD is now pressing for a formal ban via the Federal Constitutional Court, the hurdles are high. A party can only be banned if it is proven to actively work against the constitution, a line the SPD claims the AfD has now clearly crossed. Still, memories of the failed NPD ban linger. “Of course it’s risky,” admitted Thuringia’s SPD interior minister Georg Maier, “but the risk of doing nothing is even greater.”
Not everyone is convinced, however. CDU leader Friedrich Merz remains “very skeptical,” and legal experts have warned of the significant constitutional thresholds any such ban would face. Nevertheless, the SPD is framing the effort as a moral imperative. “Defending democracy means acting,” reads the party’s resolution.
While acknowledging that a ban won’t eliminate far-right ideas, the party says it is also developing a strategy to win back AfD voters, many of whom, it insists, can still be converted. The Greens have expressed support for the working group, though the final decision would lie with the Federal Constitutional Court, and require an application by the federal government, Bundestag, or Bundesrat.
