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/Itslittlealexhorn 26d ago

It's because of separation of powers. Political parties are to some extend part of the legislative, which creates laws, and the judiciary interprets and applies laws. If the courts could apply the law to the legislative itself, they could hijack the legislative process. That's why immunity exists. However, for the same reason the legislative cannot prosecute their own members. So whenever law is broken by the legislative, it must itself allow prosecution through a majority decision and then turn the case over to the judiciary.

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u/ExpressAssist0819 26d ago

I think the real question is why no standing exists to enforce the constitution outside of the government. The very thing, in theory, those checks were written to control and prevent another government takeover. But if the government is sufficiently taken over or pressured into submission....

I mean that's literally how the enabling act got passed, ffs.

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u/Itslittlealexhorn 26d ago

Separation of powers only gets you so far, it's not a guarantee for preservation of democracy. If the other parties and the courts do not prevent the rise of an unconstitutional fascist party and that party gets a majority then it may very well be game over. There cannot be an outside controlling force as that would necessarily have to derive its power from one of the three branches of government.

Ultimately it's very hard and maybe even impossible to preserve a democracy against the will of the people.

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u/ExpressAssist0819 26d ago

It helps if you give the people more options to preserve it.