As of: March 7, 2024, 11:32 a.m
By: Florian Naumann
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A possible AfD ban has been the subject of heated debates for months.
Bremen now wants to make an advance at the federal level.
Bremen - There is also great concern about the AfD in the Bremen town hall in view of the high polls of the right-wing populists: The red-red-green government coalition now wants to help the Federal Republic with the examination of an AfD ban procedure - the Hanseatic city should, according to an application from The SPD, the Greens and the Left at the federal level support a collection of material by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution.
A corresponding application should find its way to the citizens as early as next week, it was said on Wednesday (March 6th).
This should then provide the order for the Senate - the ministers of Mayor Andreas Bovenschulte (SPD) - to campaign for the plans within the federal government.
The move was accompanied by urgent warnings about the danger of the AfD.
AfD ban: New initiative from Bremen – SPD warns of infiltration by “enemies of the constitution”
A ban procedure against the AfD must be examined “as quickly as possible” and initiated “if necessary,” said SPD parliamentary group leader Mustafa Güngör – it was “five to twelve”: If the party were to assume government responsibility, there would be a risk of infiltration of the executive and legislative branches “Enemies of the Constitution close to the AfD”.
The three Bremen government partners first want to have a “material collection” created as a basis for further steps.
The application calls for an analysis of all information available to the Federal and State Office for the Protection of the Constitution about the party and its youth organization Junge Alternative (JA).
It is intended to provide the answer as to whether the constitutional requirements for an application for a ban are met.
After presenting the collection of material, the Senate should "quickly" work toward the Federal Council to initiate ban proceedings, it was said.
The collection of the material should enable a decision to be made as to whether an application for a ban “must be submitted” to the Federal Constitutional Court, said Green Party parliamentary group leader Henrike Müller.
At the same time, she emphasized that the Bremen coalition was seeking clarification through a “strict constitutional process”.
In the end, only the Federal Constitutional Court can ban a party - this is rightly not at the discretion of a parliamentary majority.
Calls for a ban on the AfD are getting louder: Wüst and Tschentscher also called for an overview of the situation
Politicians from other federal states had recently called for a nationwide situation report with all information from the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution on the AfD, including North Rhine-Westphalia's Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst (CDU) and Hamburg's First Mayor Peter Tschentscher (SPD).
A possible ban on the party has been controversial for a long time.
At the end of January, the Federal Council accepted a petition entitled “Check AfD ban!”, which around 800,000 people had signed since mid-August.
But the hurdles for this are high.
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Björn Höcke is head of the Thuringian AfD, which the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution classifies as right-wing extremist - and a figurehead for the radical right in the party.
© Martin Schutt/dpa
In addition to the federal government and the Bundestag, the Bundesrat, i.e. the representation of the federal states, can also submit an application for a party ban procedure.
The Federal Constitutional Court is responsible for an examination.
According to its previous case law, it is not enough for a party to pursue anti-constitutional ideas to be successful.
It must take an “active and combative” approach to the democratic basic order and strive for its elimination.
In addition, the chances of success of a party to be banned must not only be theoretical.
However, given poll numbers of around 20 percent, the AfD could have much better levers of power for such a possible project than the NPD did at the time.
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AFP/fn)