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A wing of the state parliament building with the dome of St. Nikolai Church in Potsdam.
As a sign against right-wing extremism, a human chain is planned around the building on February 3rd.
© Soeren Stache/dpa-Zentralbild/dpa
Statements by AfD member of the state parliament Hünich in Brandenburg call the Office for the Protection of the Constitution into action.
An outraged state parliament president also wants to take action.
Potsdam - The Brandenburg Office for the Protection of the Constitution has become involved because of statements made by AfD member of the state parliament Lars Hünich about the “party state”.
Hünich said on January 18th at an AfD event in Falkensee in Havelland: “If we have government responsibility tomorrow, then a large proportion of the people who are here will have to go home.
If we are in government tomorrow, then we have to abolish this party state.” ZDF broadcast Hünich’s statements in a “Ländespiegel” report on January 27th.
Brandenburg's Interior Minister Michael Stübgen (CDU) and State Parliament President Ulrike Liedtke (SPD) strongly condemned the statement.
The Office for the Protection of the Constitution spoke of an attack on the free, democratic basic order.
The AfD rejected the accusation of unconstitutionality and spoke, among other things, of a smear campaign.
Head of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution Jörg Müller initially said in the Interior Committee on Wednesday that if Hünich's statement was correct, it would be another building block in the collection for monitoring the AfD as a suspected case.
The AfD in Brandenburg is classified as a suspected right-wing extremist case by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution.
Interior Minister: This party hates democracy
When asked on Thursday, Brandenburg's Interior Minister Stübgen said: “Parliamentary democracy has already been abolished with the combat term “party state”.
That was in 1933 and what followed was a dictatorship of terror.” The AfD is clearly showing that it hates democracy.
According to the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, the AfD MP is calling for the abolition of democratically legitimized parties, as the Interior Ministry announced.
“Our Basic Law protects the parties in Article 21 as part of the democratic decision-making of our people.
Such a demand is therefore a clear attack on the free democratic basic order.”
It is a strategy of the AfD to push the boundaries of what can be said.
The authority's assessment said: "First, democracy is openly questioned, the applause of the supporters is taken away and then their own initiative is trivialized and given smokescreens."
The President of the State Parliament wants to talk to parliamentary groups
State Parliament President Ulrike Liedtke (SPD) said about the AfD MP's statements: “These statements are wrong and dangerous.
There is no “party state” in Germany, as is claimed, but a pluralistic democracy with free, equal and secret elections.” She also announced a conversation with the parliamentary groups.
“When elected officials of a party announce that they want to expel the majority of immigrants, that contradicts the attitude and interests of an overwhelming majority in our country.
Such statements are unacceptable.”
AfD MP speaks of “a form of systematic corruption”
Hünich himself commented in a video on the platform X (formerly Twitter).
He initially said his statements were taken out of context, but he wanted to abolish “this party state.”
The term describes that parties “divide the institutions, the authorities, the ministries and civil society among themselves”.
Hünich called for more instruments of direct democracy and criticized that top positions at the State Audit Office and the Constitutional Court were filled according to the party register.
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On Thursday he said in a written statement: ""Party state" is a term established in state theory for a form of systematic corruption in which political parties penetrate all organs of the state and convert them to their own interests."
The AfD state chairwoman Birgit Bessin said according to the statement: “The AfD in no way wants the abolition of parties, but it is high time that the entire people are given more opportunities to have a say within the framework of direct democracy based on the Swiss model; the hurdles for this must be significantly lowered. “dpa