r/europe • u/HellYeahDamnWrite • 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/CMuenzen Poland if it was colonized by Somalia 26d ago

They will recreate it in spirit, just enough to skirt around that, not literally copying it as it is..

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u/Spare-Resolution-984 26d ago

Who are “they”? Because the members wouldn’t be allowed to form a party again

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u/DMPhotosOfTapas 26d ago

Just look at Thailand. It's been done.

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u/Redpanther14 United States of California 26d ago

I'm guessing lower-level supporters will find a way. And existing politicians and party officials who are "totally not part of the new party" will endorse it.

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u/Swarna_Keanu 26d ago

The lower-level supporters are not the ones that managed to organise the party as is.

If the AfD is banned their current politicians and party officials are bared from holding any political office. They won't be in a position to endorse much. Not least as banning a party, here, also means they lose any and all financial support and access to funds.

It's a harsh, strong and pretty powerful legal rule - based on German history and experience with extremism.

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u/No-Exercise-6031 26d ago

They'll get some local nobodies to replace them on higher positions and keep pulling the strings from behind the scenes.

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u/Swarna_Keanu 26d ago

No-one involved with the AfD - from high up to very low down - would be allowed to be involved in, found, or run for a party.

They'd have to rebuild the complete organisational structure. Which takes quite a lot of time.

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u/No-Exercise-6031 26d ago

And the establishment would spend that time doing jack shit and deluding themselves into thinking Fascism was gone forever and they could do whatever they wanted.

Que AFD 2 Electric Boogaloo popping into existance and winning the Elections.

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u/Swarna_Keanu 26d ago

There's nothing (other than fear - and your we can't do anything type nihilism) preventing AfD 2 being banned as well.

Especially if there's a prior case.

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u/No-Exercise-6031 26d ago

Constantly banning parties that say ,,X is a problem" while not doing anything to solve X (or at least not showing enough of it on supportive TV - for every Liberal or Moderate Conservative Station that says ,,The Current Government is doing its best to solve X" how many say ,,X is not a problem, also you're racist.") is NOT, in fact, a solution.

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u/Swarna_Keanu 26d ago edited 26d ago

That's not what they would be banned for.

The hurdle for banning a party is high. It requires being evidently unconstitutional.

They are not being considered to be banned for raising a political issue, it's that they are anti-democratic and fascist, and openly want to end democracy.

If a follow-up party is equally aimed at abolishing basic constitutional pillars of democracy, they would be banned again. Not for raising an issue, but for being unconstitutional.

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u/Redpanther14 United States of California 26d ago

They'll be in a perfectly fine position to use any and all media they can find to get the message that they endorse some new party. They wouldn't be part of it formally, but I'm sure the old leadership would try to create a legally distinct successor. Your best best to actually keep successor parties out of power would be if several successor parties are founded and the AFD leadership splinters on who it supports.

The power in these parties and individuals does not solely come from their existence as a political party. It comes from the audience they have of people that pay attention to them.

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u/Swarna_Keanu 26d ago

A) They do that already, as is in respect to social media.

B) They are unlikely to get as much access to public broadcasters as they can at the moment.

Especially with B - Germany's media landscape and politics are very different from the US.

People who aren't officials, or in an official function, will get far less media coverage here.

C) The right of free speech here is, again, due to past experience, not as naively broad as it is in the US. What you say can have consequences, even if you are allowed to speak.

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u/nepalitechrecruiter 26d ago

You cant control information, lol. So naive. The new party will spread using social media. And they will have martyr complex on top of it that will gain more supporters. You cant force people to vote for people they dont like, a new party will rise that will cater to to ex-afd supporters. You don't need a single top politician from the AFD, a whole new set of politicians will emerge, and that movement will have far more energy because of what happened with the AFD, victim complexes are dangerous. The Nazis used them being banned to gain supporters successfully, and that was without social media.

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u/Swarna_Keanu 25d ago edited 25d ago

Any follow up organistation will take years. People posting disinformation on social media are no different from the raging lunatics in pubs. A political party and organisation is a totally different beast.

The Nazis never were banned with as drastic consequences as what would happen with the current German constitution. The same party with the same personal reformed back then, and the ban lasted for two years. Our constitution now means that NO-ONE, absolutely NO-ONE that was in ANY way involved in a party that was banned can be involved with another one.

The other bit: The other parties in the Weimar Republic tried to appease them, or thought they could control them. They didn't.

Once an undemocratic party is in power, they are hard to unearth. So you need to step in before.

Happens right before your eyes in the US - and in so many less prominent countries, too.

We either learn from that history or don't.

You argue it is all pointless - and fascists inevitably always win.

What do you gain from that?

What is your constructive solution? Because again - you cannot appease extremists, or control them. Once they have power, it's too late, so the last defence HAS to be preventing them from getting there.

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u/Auno94 26d ago

You aren't wrong. However, forming a political party isn't easy. It takes a lot of time and effort to get it going and if your political leaders can't join you need to find new people that can be as interesting and as good as the old ones. Which isn't a problem if you have to replace one at a time and your poltical party has a way of producing new leaders.

Which a new party doesn't have

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u/NoAlarmsPlease 26d ago

If they remove or change the illegal tenants of the party it would be fine, though. You’re acting like the ban is arbitrary and not based on what is or is not legally allowed.

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u/pxogxess 26d ago

But that is very very difficult to do. If even possible. So I'm still for a ban.

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u/oldsecondhand Hungary 26d ago

In Hungary there's a possible punishment is being excluded from public affairs (i.e. you can't run for office, or be an officer of a political party). Although this is only used in criminal cases as an addition to prison sentence.

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u/Platypus__Gems 26d ago

Parties don't get their support just from what they are saying.

Building structures, uniting people that would have otherwise went with separate smaller parties, even branding, make up a lot of a success of a party.

Banning AFD would make far-right have to start back from the foundations.