this post was submitted on 07 May 2025
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Germany's domestic intelligence agency last week classified the largest opposition party, the AfD, as "confirmed right-wing extremist." This has intensified debates over whether or not to ban the party.

On Friday, the Alternative for Germany (AfD) was classified as "confirmed right-wing extremist" by Germany's domestic intelligence agency, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV).

Now, there has been a first fallout: two AfD politicians and parliamentarians are not allowed to accompany Hesse's Minister for European affairs, Manfred Pentz, on a trip to Serbia and Croatia. Pentz explained that he could not expect international partners "to sit down at the same table with representatives of a party that has been confirmed as right-wing extremist."

Further measures also threaten the radical right-wing party: several federal states want to examine whether being a civil servant, including judges, police officers, teachers, or soldiers, is still compatible with being a member of the AfD.

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[–] geneva_convenience@lemmy.ml 0 points 6 days ago

Germanst will ban every group protesting against genocide before they ban the people doing a Nazi salute.

[–] JoMiran@lemmy.ml 133 points 1 week ago (6 children)

That's what we needed to do with MAGA.

[–] VirgilMastercard@reddthat.com 79 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Trump should serve as a warning. Get the fascists before they get you. These far-right parties will all be looking to emulate Trump's actions if they get a sniff of power.

[–] ToastedRavioli@midwest.social 22 points 1 week ago (7 children)

I hate to be the one to break this to you, but they already got us

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[–] gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works 34 points 1 week ago (1 children)

That’s what we needed to do with the Republican Party. They’re one and the same at this point.

[–] realitista@lemm.ee 6 points 1 week ago (3 children)

While I don't disagree with you in principle, the reality of having only 1 political party after this also doesn't look particularly good.

[–] goferking0 10 points 1 week ago

Ideally if it happened the dems would just become the right wing party and other actually left wing parties would appear. But with how screwed up the election system is in America we'd just end up in same place 😭

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[–] jaxxed@lemmy.ml 13 points 1 week ago (4 children)

It's likely to blow-back domestically. Like other countries around the world, Germany's far right nationalist party has strong domestic support right now. This may silence some politicians, bit t doesn't address the underlying issues, nor the reasons that ppl are wandering towards fascism.

My opinion is that general failures of liberal parties to actually make life better, and reduce corruption. People have lost faith.

[–] smiletolerantly@awful.systems 26 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Never in my life hage I known people (in Germany, but probably everywhere) to he happy with politics. I would also argue that for the vast majority (again, here in Germany) life has improved over the past decades.

IMO the reason for right wing surges aren't actual real-world problems or failings of ruling parties (though flawed they are), but the new forms of propaganda and outreach that right wing parties have mastered, and left wing parties have failed at.

[–] realitista@lemm.ee 10 points 1 week ago

I would say it more like "forms of propaganda (lies) that extreme right wing parties are willing to stoop to that left wing parties are not".

[–] jaxxed@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 week ago

I don't live in Germany, so won't disagree. I think that propaganda wouldn't work if people weren't already looking for someone to blame.

[–] Saleh@feddit.org 18 points 1 week ago (1 children)

They have strong domestic support because they have been poisoning the public debate with always jumping on migration and inventing stories as well as blowing things out of proportion and the media and other parties playing along. The more politics shifted to the right because of the AfD, the stronger the AfD became.

Their ideas and the way they conduct themselves was normalized, so people approve of it, because they think it is normal and legitimate. If you make it clear that it is neither, it will defuse the far right. Also by banning them, their organizations are dismantled, their politicians thrown out of power and their assets seized.

If you want to stop a fire you need to stop fueling it with self-igniting fuel. Only then can you extinguish the fire.

It's the same shit as the economist arguing against le pen being banned from running in France. Heaven forbid she and her party broke the fucking law and are being held accountable. They think the public somehow knows better.

Newsflash- we have laws for a reason. Laws without punishment are useless and so is a government that refuses to respect them. They will sow their own destruction with abdication.

[–] Madzielle@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

"My opinion is that general failures of liberal parties to actually make life better, and reduce corruption. People have lost faith."

They absolutely have lost both faith and hope. Our institutions lack integrity.

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The Germans have gone through their MAGA phase already though, so the hope has always been they'd have their shit sorted if it happened again. Here's hoping that proves to be true.

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[–] Gudl@feddit.org 88 points 1 week ago

Ban the shit out of these fascists mfers.

[–] throwawayacc0430@sh.itjust.works 34 points 1 week ago (10 children)

2025: AfD is banned

2026: New party is forned, Germans for an Alternative, or Deutsch für eine Alternative (DfA)

🙃

(You know what this means: The only good nazi is a dead one)

[–] Saleh@feddit.org 48 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Any follow up organization is also banned. So if a new organization forms it will be much easier to see if they are a follow up organization and dissolve it right away.

[–] OutlierBlue@lemmy.ca 5 points 1 week ago (2 children)

You can't just "dissolve" fascism though. Until the underlying problem is fixed it'll keep resurfacing.

[–] Duke_Nukem_1990@feddit.org 21 points 1 week ago

Yes and until then we will ban them so they don't ger funding from the state they want to destroy.

[–] Madzielle@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I'd love to see a conversation of smart people discussing how we solve the underlying problems of fascism

[–] barsoap@lemm.ee 13 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (2 children)

Solve anxiety. The hatred, the desire to put down others, all that is caused by anxiety short-circuiting people's minds, acting on, put very hand-wavily, reptilian instead of higher mammalian instincts, including social ones^1^. Without underlying anxieties fascism has nothing to latch onto, and nothing to make even worse so it can propagate and perpetuate itself.

Key anxieties to address nowadays, and feel free to add your own, are economical security, "will I be poor in the future", as well as social alienation, "can people be trusted". Both require overcoming neoliberalism. Also, yes, solve anxieties regarding the future of the planet but that's more about saving the planet so we may continue to live on it than anti-fascism for the simple reason that eco-fascism is overall negligible as a political force.

How? First of all, stop acting from anxiety.


^1^ Is that where the "lizard people" thing comes from?

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That's what fascism is about. Do not tolerate them, do not reason with them. Ban them and (if necessary) kill them.

[–] joostjakob@lemmy.world 6 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Exactly this happened with the extreme right in Flanders (Belgium). They were convicted for racism and promptly refounded themselves under a new name.

[–] futatorius@lemm.ee 1 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Ineffectual regulation doesn't work. There needs to be more resolve.

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[–] drmoose@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago (3 children)
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[–] Rin@lemm.ee 7 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Please germany, please be based 🥺❤️ (and bad the asdf)

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