Rejecting the Alternative
The Alternative for Germany (Alternative für Deutschland or AfD) is a right-wing political party in Germany known for their opposition to immigration and the EU, which the AfD suggests is restricting the national sovereignty of Germany. Members and leaders of the party hold right-wing social positions such as opposing feminism and gay marriage. Notably, AfD supporters also wish to rehabilitate language of “Volk” and “Vaterland” (nation/people and fatherland, respectively) and reject the policy of Vergangenheitsbewältigung (“coming to terms with the past”), a term referring to Germany's reckoning with its actions during World War II that is often associated with notions of collective guilt. As of the fall of 2023, they are the second most popular party, with a little more than 20% support in recent polls, behind the center-right party Christian Democratic Union of Germany (Christlich Demokratische Union Deutschland or CDU). In the 2021 elections, the AfD came in 5th, carrying about 10% support.
Recently, there have been considerations by government organizations such as the Federal Office for Protection of the Constitution (Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz; similar to our FBI) as well as non-governmental organizations such as the German Institute for Human Rights (Deutsche Institut für Menschenrechte or DIMR) suggesting that the AfD should be banned from the 2025 elections. A recent report from the DIMR suggests that banning the party could be legally permissible because the AfD may, on account of their nationalist positions, pose an existential threat to liberal democracy in Germany.
The proposal to keep the AfD from appearing on the ballot is not the first time there has been discussion of a party being banned from participating in Germany’s elections. The National Democratic Party of Germany (Nationaldemokratische Partei Deutschlands or NPD) is a far-right party which routinely carries between zero and two percent support and has nearly been banned multiple times. The AfD, however, is viewed as less extreme and is vastly more popular than the NPD.
Earlier in 2023, a court ruled the Young Alternative for Germany (Junge Alternative für Deutschland or Young AfD), the youth wing of the AfD, an extremist group. In 2022, a court called the AfD a threat to democracy and the party has since been under surveillance by the BfV. Some suggest that banning the AfD is a necessary move to protect liberal democracy in Germany; the AfD’s positions on immigrants and their proclivity for right-wing causes might be incompatible with the fundamental structure of the German constitution. Others suggest that banning such a popular party would be an attack on democracy, inflaming tensions and profoundly damaging faith in elections. As Princeton professor Jan-Werner Mueller put it in a 2013 article, democracies are “damned if they do, damned if they don’t” when it comes to banning extremist parties.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
Is it self-contradictory to ban a political party from elections in order to protect democracy?
Under what conditions, if any, is it justifiable to ban a party from an election?
Who has the right to ban a party from an election? To decide that a party is a threat to democracy? From where does
this right derive?
References
[1] New York Times Opinion, “Germany Is Treating a Major Party as a Threat to Its Democracy”
[2] EuroNews, “Should Germany ban AfD? What impact could this have?”
[3] Menschenrechtsinstitut: AfD-Verbot möglich (DE)
[4] The Guardian, “German court rules far-right AfD party a suspected threat to democracy”
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