The ruling coalition in Germany wants to ban the pro-Russian "Alternative for Germany" party
The Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) has decided to prepare a ban on the pro-Russian party Alternative for Germany (AfD). The results of the SPD congress are reported by the public broadcaster Deutsche Welle.
At the event, the delegates unanimously approved the party leadership's proposal to create a federal-state working group to gather evidence of the unconstitutionality of the far-right AfD party.
If this group gathers enough materials, the petition to ban the political force will be submitted to the Federal Constitutional Court "without delay," the media reports.
The resolution adopted at the SPD congress states that "Alternative" is a "clearly right-wing extremist party," and the evidence of its unconstitutionality is "overwhelming." Therefore, the Social Democrats will pursue the initiation of a procedure to ban the far-right force in the Federal Constitutional Court at all levels.
However, the ban "can in no way replace a political discussion about the ideas" of the radical party, and therefore the SDPN working group must also develop a concept to counter the policies of the AfD, in order to win back voters who "went" to it, according to the resolution of the congress.
However, the senior coalition partners of the SPD, the CDU/CSU bloc, view the initiative of their partners with skepticism. For example, the parliamentary secretary of the conservatives, Steffen Bilger, stated that the currently available information is insufficient to initiate the procedure for banning AfD, and also pointed to "high legal hurdles". The politician added that the details will be discussed within the coalition.
Bülger also called for political debates with representatives of "Alternative".
"Like the SPD, we want to bring back as many as possible of the ten million AfD voters to the political center by solving concrete problems," he said, emphasizing that "the disappointment [of voters] cannot be forbidden."
- During the last snap election in Germany in February 2025, the AfD came in second, receiving 10.4% and 151 seats in the Bundestag.
- In early May, the German Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution decided to temporarily refrain from publicly designating the AfD as a right-wing extremist organization, pending a court decision on the matter.
