Reason for termination of AfD membership? Karl Lauterbach supports planned change in the law

Since the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution classified the AfD as confirmed right-wing extremist, party members have grown increasingly concerned about professional consequences. This is especially true for those working in the public sector. Is this just scaremongering? Absolutely not. Controls are already being conducted, and they are to be gradually tightened, even though the classification has yet to be reviewed.

As reported by Der Spiegel, several German states have introduced legal regulations aimed at restricting access to civil service for members of extremist organizations. In some states, applicants for public service positions are already required to state whether they are members of the AfD.

Regular queries to the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution without any specific reason?

In Baden-Württemberg, asking applicants whether they belong to an extremist organization has long been common practice. The AfD is on the list. Bavaria has followed suit, and Rhineland-Palatinate will soon introduce the same approach.

Applicants are therefore faced with a choice: Either they acknowledge their party membership and risk rejection, or they keep it secret in the hope that their affiliation with the AfD will remain undetected.

Other federal states rely on so-called routine inquiries to the Office for the Protection of the Constitution. In Brandenburg, this applies to all future civil servants, while in Hamburg and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, for example, it specifically targets prospective police officers and judicial staff.

Schleswig-Holstein, Hesse, and Hamburg are also planning to expand such procedures by law. The trend is clear. In almost all federal states, security checks without a specific reason are now a reality or on the way to becoming reality. A procedure supported by former Health Minister Karl Lauterbach .

On Platform X, the SPD politician responded to Der Spiegel's research, writing: "Why should citizens who are members of a confirmed right-wing extremist party have the privilege of working for the state as civil servants? Anyone who wants to destroy our state, even by democratic means, through incitement and lies is not a civil servant."

And how is the AfD dealing with this? It urges calm. Following the classification by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, the federal executive board sent out a four-page "Guideline for Civil Servants and Public Employees." It states, among other things: "For the sole reason that the AfD has been upgraded by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, civil servants, soldiers, and public employees cannot be removed from their civil service status or dismissed from service."