Initiative of MPs Draft proposal to ban AfD submitted to Bundestag

Status: 11.10.2024 19:51

The AfD is to be examined by the Federal Constitutional Court - this is the aim of the draft for a ban application submitted by several MPs. It is now before the Bundestag.

The draft for a motion to ban the AfD in the Bundestag is ready. It can now be signed by members of parliament. The document, which is available to rbb, states that the AfD is opposing central basic principles of the free democratic basic order. Human dignity and the prohibition of discrimination are "blatantly called into question" by the AfD, its leading officials and numerous elected representatives and members.

According to the authors, the AfD aims to restrict or eliminate the rights of people with a migration background, with disabilities or with "non-heteronormative sexuality" as well as members of national minorities and ethnic groups in favor of a "nationalistic strengthening of a supposed Germanness".

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The responsibility of the German Bundestag for liberal democracy therefore requires that it "enables the legal review of the AfD by the independent Federal Constitutional Court."

The application is based on findings from the constitutional protection authorities, rulings from the higher administrative courts in Thuringia and North Rhine-Westphalia, and research by various media, which are listed on several pages. accusation of abuse of power by AfD

For example, according to the Higher Administrative Court of North Rhine-Westphalia, it is clear that, in the opinion of the AfD, Germans with a migration background are not "fully-fledged Germans" and that there is an "insurmountable biological, ancestry-related difference" between migrants and Germans. The party's disdain for state institutions and officials also provides evidence of its hostility to democracy. It rejects democracy and the parliamentary system and advocates violent overthrow.

The AfD's work in parliaments also confirms the assumption that it uses the power it has gained "to take action against political opponents, weaken constitutional structures and procedures, exclude and disparage minorities, attack sexual self-determination and hinder and, in the medium term, abolish state support for democracy and civil society."

Numerous extremists and enemies of the constitution also have access to the German Bundestag and to sensitive data and information through the AfD. In part, the party is "the extended arm of authoritarian foreign regimes" and acts on their behalf against German interests. A young woman watches a video on a social media platform on her mobile phone (Source: dpa/Niklas Graeber) "There is a very strong urge against propaganda in the younger generation"

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A total of 37 members of the Bundestag from the SPD, Union, Greens and Left Party are behind the motion. Their common goal is to apply to the Federal Constitutional Court for proceedings to ban the AfD. A party ban can be applied to the Federal Constitutional Court by the Bundestag, Bundesrat or Federal Government. In the proceedings, the AfD would have to be proven to be aggressively and militantly acting against the constitution. It is not yet clear whether and when the Bundestag will vote on the motion.

The plan has met with a mixed response among the population. According to the ARD DeutschlandTrend published on Thursday, a majority of 46 percent of those surveyed are opposed to initiating ban proceedings against the AfD. However, the number of those who consider it appropriate rose to 42 percent.

The AfD, meanwhile, is relaxed about the initiative. The motion is doomed to failure and will not even pass the Bundestag, said party leader Alice Weidel this week. "You cannot exclude 20 percent of citizens in the Federal Republic of Germany from democratic participation."