Enlarge image
Sticker with AfD logo in Mainz
Photo:
Andreas Arnold/DPA
On the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the AfD, SPD General Secretary Kevin Kühnert calls for a clear demarcation from the party.
"It is crucial for the basic democratic consensus of our society that the AfD, as a pariah among the parties, will not be able to achieve any direct political effect in the future - not only in federal politics, but everywhere," he told the "Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung".
In particular, the parties in the liberal-conservative spectrum are required "not only to maintain the firewall to the blue-brown border, but to stabilize it," said Kühnert.
SPD parliamentary secretary Katja Mast made a similar statement.
"For the SPD it was clear from day one: there will never be cooperation with these enemies of democracy," she told the "Rheinische Post".
However, other parties are more flexible, which is dangerous.
In the east, the AfD threatens to become a permanent political force.
"This is highly dangerous."
In Königstein, Hesse, the AfD wants to celebrate its tenth anniversary this Monday.
The party was founded on February 6, 2013 in nearby Oberursel.
In addition to party and parliamentary group leaders Tino Chrupalla and Alice Weidel, AfD honorary chairman Alexander Gauland will also speak.
Unions and associations have called for a counter-demo in the small spa town.
In 2017, the AfD came into the Bundestag for the first time with 12.6 percent.
When they moved back in 2021, it reached 10.3 percent.
The AfD also sits in 15 out of 16 state parliaments.
The Office for the Protection of the Constitution observes the party as a suspected right-wing extremist.
According to the extremism researcher Hajo Funke, the AfD will not gain in importance in federal politics in the next ten years.
"With its radical orientation, the AfD will remain trapped nationwide in the tower of ten percent plus," he told the "Rheinische Post".
Although the party and above all the Thuringian state chairman Björn Höcke want to power, "I don't think this will succeed," said Funke.
The AfD is only growing a little at the moment, "it was ahead nationwide".
However, it is different in Thuringia, Saxony-Anhalt and Saxony.
In these countries there is a strategic weakness of all democratic parties, especially the CDU, said Funke.
“We are observing there what we were also able to observe when the Weimar Republic disappeared – that democrats no longer have any options that can win a majority.”
aar/dpa/AFP
