Merz: banning the AfD will not solve the problem
The AfD’s election victory in Saxony-Anhalt has sparked a new debate concerning possible proceedings for having the party banned. The Federal Chancellor has now shared his view on the matter.
Berlin (dpa) – Federal Chancellor Friedrich Merz has expressed scepticism concerning the likelihood that proceedings to ban the AfD would be successful. “We can totally keep looking into this, but I think it is a very high obstacle,” Merz said at a joint press conference with EU Council President António Costa in Berlin. “In addition, I do not think that banning this party would solve the problem the party’s voters are seeing in Germany.”
Merz therefore called for dealing with the AfD from a political perspective. The party won the recent Landtag (state parliament) elections in Saxony-Anhalt with 43.8 percent of the votes. The Federal Chancellor said that efforts had to be made to bring voters back to the political centre, and to convince them with a suitable political programme.
Following the AfD’s election victory, Hendrik Wüst, the State Premier of North Rhine-Westphalia had requested that an unprejudiced review of the party is carried out by a group of experts from the federal and state governments as well as constitutional lawyers and officials from the Office for the Protection of the Constitution.
The SPD and the Greens are also in favour of reviewing the option of initiating proceedings for banning the party. The AfD is classified as confirmed right-wing extremist by the State Offices for the Protection of the Constitution in a number of federal states, including Saxony-Anhalt.
