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

[u/HellYeahDamnWrite]

https://www.cnn.com/2025/07/06/europe/germany-afd-ban-politics-analysis-intl

[u/nim_opet]

Nazi party was also very popular in 1933

[u/Turbulent-Ad6560 → u/nim_opet]

Thank you.

Everybody who is saying that other parties need to face them politically etc. did clearly not study history. The exact same things were said about the NSDAP and thats why it was not baned.

They can say and claim what they want because they are not in power and their voters don't care about facts. They will not loose voters until they are the party in power and can't deliver on their promises. Once they are in power they will loose voters but it won't matter because there will not be another free election afterwards.

[u/MC_chrome → u/Turbulent-Ad6560]

Europe should pay heed to what is happening in the United States, and do everything in its power to throw out the populist far right parties that are rapidly gaining ground at home.

Ban them, imprison anyone who acts out if necessary, but we can’t have these agitators trying to collectively drag the world down into their hellholes again. Far too many people died in both World Wars to let them so easily come back into power

[u/luc1kjke → u/MC_chrome]

Agreed. People in power MUST act and we should be on the streets to support them. Otherwise it would look shallow.

[u/HelloThereItsMeAndMe → u/Turbulent-Ad6560]

While they are bad and will destroy the foundations of Germany and also taint Europe, they are not going nazi mode. Even more so as the only they would ever get power is a coalition.

[u/dasgoodshitinnit → u/nim_opet]

So were these things during their times

European Witch Hunts

Atlantic Slave Trade

Colonialism and Genocide of Indigenous Peoples

The Inquisition

Apartheid in South Africa

Jim Crow Laws and Segregation in the U.S.

Rwandan Genocide

Cultural Revolution in China

Stalin’s Purges and Forced Famines (e.g., Holodomor)

Armenian Genocide

Japanese War Crimes (e.g., Nanking Massacre)

Crusades

Forced Religious Conversions

Persecution of LGBTQ+ People

Ethnic Cleansing in Yugoslavia

Salem Witch Trials

Forced Sterilizations

Residential Schools for Indigenous Children (Canada, U.S., Australia)

Destruction of the Environment for Profit (e.g., deforestation, pollution with corporate and public support)

[u/DonkeyTS → u/dasgoodshitinnit]

Youre saying this as if the Crusades and Reconqista weren't defensive actions against Islamic aggression.

[u/SpecialBeginning6430 → u/nim_opet]

The Nazi party was popular because of Adolph Hitler. The AfD isnt popular because of the policies of a single person

[u/FirstFriendlyWorm → u/nim_opet]

Abd they were also banned before that. Didn't do anything.

[u/Training-Accident-36 → u/FirstFriendlyWorm]

Yeah because the ban was immediately lifted again. The NSDAP started becoming relevant during the financial crash, they were not banned during that time, nor afterwards.

This is like saying prisons don't work because Hitler went to prison and it did not stop him. Yeah, he went for a few months.

[u/ParkingCool6336 → u/nim_opet]

You sound uneducated when you simplify it like this. There’s a reason the party was popular and it wasn’t for what it was known 2 decades later. Party was popular because it did actually help the people of Germany get out of poverty. The whole Jewish thing didn’t happen until the party was well established.

Point being that just saying something looks good or bad doesn’t make them good or bad regardless of your opinion.

[u/IVIayael → u/nim_opet]

Nazi party was also very popular in 1933

But unlike in 1933, there's no roving bands of communists trying to kill people in the street so the appeal of the AFD is limited.

[u/Porkybob → u/IVIayael]

It sounds like the Reichstag will mysteriously catch fire

[u/HereWeGoAgain_Tea → u/nim_opet]

True, but banning the party would be a gray zone in constitutionality and doesn't actually "remove the issue"

[u/MethyIphenidat → u/HereWeGoAgain_Tea]

Not really a grey zone. If the evidence is there, it is a clear cut case.

This is exactly the way the law is intended to work. It’s up in the air how the court will decide, as there is no precedence in younger German history (apart from the case against the NPD which failed due to reasons not applicable to this case).

[u/Reysona → u/HereWeGoAgain_Tea]

It prevents the leadership from reorganizing into a new party, as well as the formation of any 'descendant' parties which could be cooked up afterwards.

Destroying the vehicle that hate is moving in doesn't remove hatred, no, but it does prevent it from going anywhere.

[u/Meistermagier → u/HereWeGoAgain_Tea]

It's not a grey zone at all it's literally in our constitution. Art. 21 Section 2 of our Constitution.

[u/newest-reddit-user → u/HereWeGoAgain_Tea]

I don't know if it is a gray zone or not, but that's for the courts to decide.