Certainly incompetent: Anyone who bans the AfD is too weak for democracy
Faeser has the AfD classified as firmly right-wing extremist. This makes it clear: the establishment doesn't believe they can defeat the party politically. A commentary.
They have used every conceivable trick of political exclusion to combat the AfD. Their politicians were barred from speaking on talk shows and in newspapers so they wouldn't be given a "platform." They were denied positions in the Bundestag, and their party conferences were blocked. Questionable investigations like Correctiv's "secret plan" and the subsequent "demonstrations against the right" were intended to push the party back. They were called undemocratic. But it hasn't worked. On the contrary: The AfD has grown stronger each time.
And now, two days before the end of her term, the acting Interior Minister announces that, according to an agency under her direction, the party is definitely right-wing extremist. Nancy Faeser then immediately illustrated this news on social media with a photo of herself.
This makes it clear: The establishment, especially the SPD, no longer believe that the right wing can be defeated politically. The endless promises of the "traffic light" coalition and now the "black-red" coalition that they will solve the problems from which the AfD draws its strength are just talk. And because they no longer believe in themselves, they want to ban what they cannot defeat in political competition.
As of today, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution classifies the "Alternative for Germany" (AfD) as a confirmed right-wing extremist endeavor due to the extremist character of the entire party, which disregards human dignity.
More on this: https://t.co/wwCsW73vjh pic.twitter.com/bjRzPyFP6B
Until this federal election, the established parties and most of the media blamed the AfD's success on East Germans. The general consensus was that they didn't understand democracy. But that's no longer the case since February 23. It was already nonsense before, but now the AfD is not only the undisputed strongest force in the East. In absolute terms, it has more voters in the West. So, this phenomenon is a pan-German phenomenon. East Germans simply realized earlier that the governing parties had no solutions to offer.
The central accusation of the domestic intelligence service is: "Specifically, the AfD, for example, does not consider German citizens with a migration background from predominantly Muslim countries as equal members of the German people, as ethnically defined by the party." What do AfD voters with a migration background think of this? Conversations with Uber drivers broaden the horizon.
Conveniently, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution is not required to provide any evidence to the public or the AfD. The 1,100-page report remains under wraps. What has otherwise been revealed is partly preposterous. For example, it claims that AfD politicians are unconstitutional because they disguise themselves as deportation pilots. Yet deportations are legal, and disguises may be tasteless, but they are not illegal. Chancellor Olaf Scholz personally called for "deportations on a large scale" on the cover of Der Spiegel.
Many of its nearly eleven million voters probably thought that if they gave their vote to the AfD, the other parties would move and finally address the country's serious deficits in migration, the economy, housing, or Russia policy. Wrong. The last coalition failed to do so, and the next one apparently doesn't have the courage to do so either. The CDU/CSU has so far stated that a classification as confirmed right-wing extremist is a prerequisite for a ban. The employers' wing of the CDU/CSU called for an immediate ban.
On election nights, the AfD's voting bars are increasingly in the highest or second-highest positions. The more representatives there are, the more factions and supporters, the more self-evident the party appears. Success normalizes. Now the secret services and the government are attempting to re-demonize the party. But that, too, will fail. Anyone who wants to ban the AfD is missing the boat on the reorganization of Western democracies. No opposition parties are banned there. But that would at least keep Germany true to itself. It has never trusted democracy.
Berliner-zeitung
