The German parliament, the Bundestag, is about to decide on the process of banning the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.
For quite some time, representatives from various Bundestag factions have been working on drafting a resolution to pursue a process that could potentially disband the AfD. The completed document is now ready and expected to be tabled in parliament soon. Besides disbanding the extreme-right party, there's another objective.
According to reports from "Die Welt", a parliamentary vote on this cross-party resolution is imminent. Members from the SPD, CDU/CSU, Greens, and Left parties have voiced support, although their entire factions are not entirely on board.
This resolution has been in the works for months and was finalized not too long ago. A minimum of 37 parliamentarians is required for a cross-faction motion. However, the AfD party ban resolution is expected to be introduced by a substantial number of parliamentarians: At least ten from each of the aforementioned parties, as suggested by "Die Welt". Marco Wanderwitz, a CDU member from Saxony, is one of the driving forces behind this initiative. He labeled the AfD "right-wing extremist in its roots and branches" over two years back.
The resolution requests the Federal Constitutional Court to assess, based on Article 21 of the Basic Law and Paragraph 43 of the Federal Constitutional Court Act, whether the Alternative for Germany party is unconstitutional or at the very least, ineligible for state funding.
Opposition to AfD Ban from Scholz
The motion accuses the AfD of aiming to overthrow the democratic order and taking a hostile, aggressive stance towards it. The motion lists multiple violations of the human dignity guarantee in the Basic Law, including calls for "millions of repatriations" of migrants. It also identifies several controversial statements made by federal and state chairpersons of the AfD as attacks against the dignity of migrants, Muslims, and LGBTQ+ communities.
Olaf Scholz, the Federal Chancellor, stated in late May that he currently does not consider a party ban for the AfD to be a priority. He described a party ban as a "very challenging issue in a democracy", with extremely high barriers. In 2017, the second attempt at banning the right-wing extremist NPD at the Federal Constitutional Court failed.
At the start of the year, the court in Karlsruhe withdrew state funding from the party that renamed itself "Die Heimat". The justification was an amendment to the Basic Law passed in 2017, which allows state funding to be revoked from a party if its actions or supporters pursue anti-constitutional goals. However, this requires clear evidence of anti-democratic intentions.
The cross-party resolution, which includes support from members of the SPD, CDU/CSU, Greens, and Left parties, aims to be presented in the German Bundestag soon, seeking to ban the AfD due to its alleged violation of human dignity guarantees and attacks against various communities.
The resolution, instituted by several prominent parliamentarians like Marco Wanderwitz, is expected to garner support from at least ten members from each of the aforementioned parties, as reported by "Die Welt", in their endeavor to disband the AfD in the German Bundestag.
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