Wanderwitz seeks comrades-in-arms for AfD ban
CDU MP Wanderwitz from Saxony has long been calling for the AfD to be banned. He now wants to introduce a motion to this effect in the Bundestag. So far, however, there seems to be a lack of supporters. The 48-year-old is now canvassing his colleagues.
CDU member of parliament Marco Wanderwitz has formulated a motion to ban the AfD and is now looking for supporters. "The AfD is a racist, anti-Semitic and right-wing extremist party," the draft reads, according to Der Spiegel. "Human dignity and the ban on discrimination are now being blatantly questioned by the AfD, its leading functionaries and numerous elected representatives and members." The motion calls on the Bundestag to apply to the Federal Constitutional Court to declare the AfD unconstitutional, dissolve it and confiscate its assets for charitable purposes.
He hopes to have the required number of at least 37 MPs supporting his motion by the end of the year. To this end, he is currently holding many talks with MPs from almost all parties, he said. The 48-year-old is apparently aiming for broad, cross-party support. A motion can be tabled in the Bundestag by "MPs in parliamentary groups". According to the rules of procedure, a parliamentary group comprises at least five percent of MPs. With currently 736 delegates, this is 37 MPs.
It was obvious to him that the AfD wanted to "transfer democracy to a different system", he said. The instrument provided for in the Basic Law for precisely such cases must therefore be used. The many crises were currently weighing heavily on democracy. For populists, they are like "an oxygen tent", continued Wanderwitz. The blow of a ban provides democracy with the urgently needed "breathing space" in this situation.
Counted out by Kretschmer after the election
Wanderwitz has been campaigning for a ban for some time now. Next year, new state parliaments will be elected in Thuringia, Saxony and Brandenburg, among others. In the respective polls, the AfD is ahead everywhere with more than 30 percent.
Wanderwitz has been a member of the CDU since 1998. He has been a member of the Bundestag since 2002. He entered the Bundestag four times in a row as a direct candidate in Saxon constituencies. In 2021, he was defeated by an AfD candidate, but re-entered parliament via the state list. During this time, he was Parliamentary State Secretary in the Ministry of the Interior and later in the Ministry of Economic Affairs. He also held the office of Federal Government Commissioner for Eastern Germany.
After the 2021 federal election with its disastrous result for the CDU in the Free State of Saxony, Saxony's CDU leader and Minister President Michael Kretschmer blamed Wanderwitz for the Union's poor performance. The head of government told the "Leipziger Volkszeitung" newspaper that Wanderwitz's comments that people in East Germany were in part "socialized by dictatorship" were "certainly not helpful". An election campaign has many components. "But people felt stigmatized and attacked by Mr Wanderwitz. It was certainly not meant that way, but that is part of the history of this election campaign."
Wanderwitz's motion to ban the AfD in the German Bundestag also seeks support from other parliamentary groups, not just the CDU. This includes reaching out to parties from the Ordner, a term often used to refer to the center-right and conservative parties in Germany.
The Federal Constitutional Court could play a crucial role in the potential ban of the AfD, as the motion proposed by Wanderwitz calls for the court to declare the party unconstitutional.
Despite facing criticism and being counted out by some, Wanderwitz continues to advocate for the ban of the AfD, reflecting his belief that the party poses a threat to German democracy as we know it.
Source: www.ntv.de
