Several offices for the protection of the constitution in Germany monitor individual AfD state associations. From the point of view of the Thuringian SPD politician Dorothea Marx, consequences must now be drawn from this.
Thuringia’s SPD domestic politician Dorothea Marx has spoken out in favor of tougher government action against the AfD. “The time is ripe for a ban on the AfD – especially in the Thuringian state association,” Marx told the German Press Agency. After numerous party organizations of the AfD are observed by German authorities for the protection of the constitution, it is only logical for the state to take further measures against the AfD and no longer provide them with state funds.
“The next thing is logically a ban procedure,” said the lawyer, who headed two investigative committees of the Thuringian state parliament into the murders of the right-wing extremist “National Socialist Underground”. She is convinced that it is possible to ban individual state associations of a party, said Marx. “Our democracy is not defenseless, but well defended.” Marx has been a member of the Thuringian state parliament since 2009. Between 1990 and 1998 she was a member of the German Bundestag.
In Germany only the Federal Constitutional Court can ban a political party. There are high hurdles in such a prohibition procedure. In 2017, a ban on the right-wing extremist NPD failed after the court ruled that the party was working towards eliminating the existing free democratic basic order in Germany. The political ideas of the NPD disregard human dignity and are incompatible with the principle of democracy. However, the NPD does not have enough political weight in Germany to be able to achieve its goals. Therefore it cannot be banned.
The fact that Thuringian AfD politicians appeared together with right-wing extremists during a demonstration on the Day of German Unity in Gera once again underlines that the party has long since stopped drawing borders to the right, said Marx. Unlike the NPD, no one can deny that the AfD has a major influence on the political landscape in Germany. “Hate and hate speech by the AfD must no longer be equated with democratic freedom of expression,” said Marx.
Not only in Thuringia does the office for the protection of the constitution deal intensively with the party. The state associations are also observed, for example, in Saxony, Bavaria, Hesse and Baden-Württemberg.