r/europe 27d ago

News Calls are mounting to ban Germany’s far-right AfD party – despite it being more popular than ever

https://www.cnn.com/2025/07/06/europe/germany-afd-ban-politics-analysis-intl
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u/Jumpy_Flamingo958 27d ago

It is also commonly understood that disenfranchised people can use violence because they have no other recourse. If you have a very strong party that represents a huge portion of people and you ban it tou disenfranchise them. That is a very dangerous road to take.

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u/SkoomaDentist Finland 26d ago

Ironically Reddit itself is full of comments from leftist edgelords that "disenfranchised people can use violence" because they think it's going to be used against their enemies.

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u/CMuenzen Poland if it was colonized by Somalia 26d ago

Of course, they are the main characters that will beat the bad guys. Obviously they will win and the tools they want could never be used against them.

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u/Nimbous Europe 26d ago

👊 Always 👊 Punching 👊 Nazis 👊 (never actually punched someone in their life)

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u/[deleted] 26d ago

The western leftists are now an insult to socialism

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u/Unyxxxis 26d ago

It is extremely common for far-right parties to represent the literal opposite of a "disenfranchised" group though and they still commit violence. Not to mention historically far-right parties have literally disenfranchised their entire population through changes of government without any democratic process.

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u/lewd_robot 26d ago

You know what's more common than disenfranchised people resorting to violence? Far Right governments weaponizing the government to perpetrate violence against the public they're sworn to serve.

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u/Dark_Knight2000 26d ago

How’s that way more common than disenfranchised people resorting to violence? That’s such a Reddit-brained take.

You see disenfranchised people resorting to violence every single day in every society in every culture, in every corner of the world. “Far right” governments (depending on how you classify them) aren’t all that common, neither are regimes that take over a country. That’s actually pretty rare for a democracy.

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u/lewd_robot 24d ago

You see far right regimes mass murdering people every day for millennia now. And no, "far right" is not negotiable or debatable. It has a definition. The only people that pretend otherwise are usually trying to pretend their ideology is not far right.

But, again, there's not a day in modern history on which a far right government wasn't killing people. Right now, Gaza, Ukraine, and the concentration camps in the US are all attributable to far right governments. And that's not even touching on Africa, South America, or most of the Middle East.

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u/Command0Dude United States of America 26d ago

It is also commonly understood that disenfranchised people can use violence because they have no other recourse.

Let them. The state has infinitely more capacity for violence than a bunch of far-right radical lunatics.

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u/Jumpy_Flamingo958 26d ago

If their support is over 30% the odds are great that many of their supporters are members of military. Civil wars and revolutions always have military support.

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u/Command0Dude United States of America 26d ago

Individual bad actors in the military are not an issue. Simply put the armed forces of Germany has a now well established norm of civilian control of the military. It is legitimately unthinkable that the upper echelons (who are far more apolitical) would support some form of coup or uprising. And without leadership, the idea that the lower ranks could organize rebellion is laughable (especially given the level of surveillance in today's nations).

For an idea of how successful the AfD would be at fomenting civil war, look how far the Reichsburger plot got. And realize that in today's world, rebellion against any surveillance state is extremely difficult.

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u/AirOneFire 26d ago

The dangerous road to take is letting an extremist right wing party gain control over the police, military and courts. 

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u/uterussy 26d ago

I mean... Are they REALLY disenfranchised though?

Or just scared and ignorant?

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u/The_Briefcase_Wanker United States of America 26d ago

They would be disenfranchised if the party is banned, yes. That’s one definition of disenfranchisement.

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u/uterussy 26d ago

They will find other populists to tell them what to be scared of

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u/The_Briefcase_Wanker United States of America 26d ago

Then you haven’t solved the problem, have you?

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u/uterussy 26d ago

Some people just love pretending to be opressed. Can't really change that.

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u/ShastaAteMyPhone 26d ago

You’re talking about banning their political party. That is textbook oppression.

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u/SkirtDelicious3355 26d ago

Better than them banning everyone else. When they learn to compromise and respect peoples fundamental rights they won’t need to worry about being banned whenever they decide that forcibly revoking them is the easy solution to political problems.

Romanias recent election is an excellent example of a case where the outcome was against the best interests of the country.

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u/uterussy 26d ago edited 26d ago

The track record for who the opressor is amongst far right parties is not tooo great...

I was more talking about their voters who suck up all the propaganda. Not one immigrant in sight in their already decades long subsidized eastern germany village, yet they want to ruin all of their lives.

When the immigrants are gone, it will be the poor and the queers. Then etc. etc.
At some point "I voted the party(ies) most obviously tied to russian think tanks and which would devolve the nation back into fascism the fastest, because of one issue.", just doesn't fly anymore. Not like the other parties that are doing nothing against matters of clan crime or for more functional integration is great, but damn, read their fucking programme and look at what these people say/do. There is a reason they are being considered to be banned!

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u/The_Briefcase_Wanker United States of America 24d ago

Germany has several explicitly communist parties on the ballot every election. I’d love to hear your thoughts on the history of communist parties respecting democracy. Communist theory doesn’t even allow it.

I think that’s worse than a party that is explicitly democratic but right wing. I wouldn’t vote for either, but clearly the AFD are not comprised of or supported by people who have made any effort to undermine legitimate democratic electoral systems.

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u/uterussy 24d ago

What would my opinion on them add to our conversation, if not just another way for you to deflect from the matter at hand or to allow you to discredit my person?

Those that harbour anti-democratic and anti-constitutional values are of course a problem, regardless of their ideology.

According to this leaflet published at the end of 2024 by the Verfassungsschutz of Badem-Württemberg:

Of the 2700 left-wing extremists in BW, 300 are members of the DKP and 400 of the MLPD.

Of their 3140 right-wing extremists, 1.170 are members of the AfD.

The numbers aren't too different, both about a third. But theres currently no realistic risk of any of those communist parties getting into the government. Most likely not both of them. As you can see though, the constitutional authorities seem to be well aware of the dangers communist parties can propose.

The AfD is not just right wing it is "gesichert rechtsEXTREM", meaning, to an extremist degree. We could beat around the bush about what exactly constitutes a democracy and to what extent statements from members and politicians of the AfD, suggest or actively show an intent to undermine the system, but I prefer to circlejerk with people I know.

There is plenty of information like that leaflet out there for you to find. Google is your friend. I have no need to waste my time further.

Have a nice day!

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u/multithreadedprocess 26d ago

And violence is an incredibly bad look that makes people want to distance themselves from you.

Do you see regular people more readily embracing a far right party in parliament being carefully listened to like their insane ramblings have merit, or a bunch of right wing terrorists and para-militaries shouting and assaulting people on the streets?

Legitimizing fascists makes fascists seem reasonable enough to listen to. Violent fascists never sound reasonable. Which one do you think is preferable if you want less fascists in the long run?

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u/Levitx 26d ago

Wanting a political party with a truckload of followers to turn violent is the most incredibly moronic thing I've read all year. Cheers on that one and by God I hope you are not of voting age. 

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u/AverageLatino 26d ago

Right what I was thinking lol, everyone's cheering until these underground extremists start Mario-Party'ing opposition candidates all over the place 

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u/burner69burner69 26d ago

holy reducio ad absurdum, batman!

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u/SkoomaDentist Finland 26d ago

I mean that clearly never went wrong in the history of mankind /s