“They reorganize themselves the next day”: Merz speaks out against AfD ban procedures

Enlarge image

CDU leader Friedrich Merz: "I don't believe in such ban procedures at all"

Photo:

IMAGO/Christian Spicker

After the anti-terror raid on so-called Reich citizens and individual AfD politicians, CDU leader Friedrich Merz rejected a ban on the party as useless.

"I don't think much of such ban procedures," he said on the Welt broadcaster on Wednesday evening.

“They reorganize the next day and are in another party.

And then the game starts all over again,” he said.

What is needed is a political debate, not a legal one.

On the other hand, Merz can imagine a tightening of gun laws, as planned by Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD).

"If it should turn out that people from this scene have come into possession of weapons, have come into possession of weapons legally, then you really have to check that." But that alone won't do any good either, he said.

“I'm just warning us against the fallacy of thinking that if you take these people's guns away, their attitude has changed.

That's the real problem."

Lang: Right-wing extremism has a “parliamentary arm”

The Green Party leader Ricarda Lang, on the other hand, told the broadcaster Welt that an AfD ban should not be taboo.

“That needs to be checked very carefully.

Because what we do see is that right-wing extremism has a parliamentary arm – and that is the AfD.” There are good reasons for a ban on the matter: “There is a party that supports this democracy – and ultimately this country too - deeply despised.

Who is currently making herself the mouthpiece of Vladimir Putin.«

A week ago, 25 suspected "Reich citizens" were arrested.

22 of them are accused of being members of a terrorist organization that wanted to overthrow the political system.

sol/dpa