Should extremist parties be banned?
#49
The Story
Getting rid of an extremist party
Tell me.
In Germany, the recent revelation that politicians from Germany's far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) met with right-wing activists last November to discuss an extremist "re-migration" plot has brought the debate over banning the party to a fever pitch.
How is a ban supposed to work?
The Bundestag, the Bundesrat (represents the sixteen states of Germany at the federal level), and the Federal Government can apply to the Federal Constitutional Court ("Bundesverfassungsgericht") to ban an extremist party that, by reason of its aims or the behaviour of its adherents, "seek to undermine or abolish the free democratic basic order or to endanger the existence of the Federal Republic of Germany." (Art. 21(2) first sentence of the Basic Law)
Has there already been such an application?
An attempt to ban the National Democratic Party (NPD, founded by ex-Nazis in 1964) failed in the early 2000s after many of its leaders were revealed to be undercover agents for the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (LfV). A second attempt was then blocked in 2017 when the court declared the party too small to represent a threat to the constitutional order.
The AfD is not that small.
It isn't. The AfD even surpassed Chancellor Olaf Scholz's Social Democratic Party (SPD) in the polls, moving into second place.
So, would the AfD be banned?
The regional associations of the party in Saxony, Thuringia and Saxony-Anhalt have been classified as right-wing extremist organisations by the LfV; so have the Young Alternative for Germany (Junge Alternative für Deutschland or JA), the youth organisation of AfD. However, this assessment does not (yet) apply to the federal party.
Would it be good for democracy to ban the AfD?
Resist the beginnings! – After the Nazis abolished the first democracy in Germany, the Basic Law of the second democracy aimed to make this democracy more defensive. This is how the Basic Law introduced the possibility that the legislature could instruct the judiciary to examine whether an extreme party should be banned. In this respect, the regulation strengthens democracy. On the other hand, if the AfD were forbidden, only the party would disappear; its supporters would not. Nothing would prevent AfD members from establishing a new right-wing party – an alternative to the Alternative. By the way, public opinion in Germany is evenly split on whether the AfD should be banned.
How To Save Democracy
If a party wants to abolish democracy, it is legitimate to ban that party. This protects democracy. The problem: You only know whether this party will actually do it when it can do it. Then, it will be too late to ban the party. So, while deciding whether to ban or not, you always have to work with assumptions. The barriers to removal are, therefore, justifiably very high. Furthermore, a party ban would eliminate part of the will of the people, in the case of the AfD, a fifth of the German electorate. That's why I prefer to beat the far-right party in the voting booth, not at the judge's bench.
Notes:
https://www.geo.de/wissen/debatte-ueber-afd-verbot--lehren-frueherer-parteienverbote-34367366.html
https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/german-attempt-to-ban-far-right-afd-wrong-approach-by-michael-broning-2024-01
https://www.politico.eu/article/germany-far-right-afd-ban-election-vote/
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/jan/10/politicians-from-germany-afd-met-extremist-group-to-discuss-deportation-masterplan
https://www.spiegel.de/politik/radikalisierung-der-afd-verfassungsfeinde-verbieten-a-50bdd3e1-8968-47e7-ba9c-5072b4e304f5
https://www.bundesverfassungsgericht.de/EN/Verfahren/Wichtige-Verfahrensarten/Parteiverbotsverfahren/parteiverbotsverfahren_node.html
http://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/englisch_gg/englisch_gg.html#p0114
https://www.dw.com/en/germany-afd-in-saxony-classified-as-extremist/a-67665643
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Young_Alternative_for_Germany
https://www.welt.de/politik/deutschland/article249472328/AfD-Verbot-42-Prozent-der-Deutschen-befuerworten-Verbotsverfahren.html
