Thuringia’s SPD can imagine a ban on the AfD. Prime Minister Ramelow reports concerns about the coalition partner’s considerations.
Erfurt (dpa/th) – Thuringia’s Prime Minister Bodo Ramelow (left) sees the debate about an AfD ban procedure critically. “Anyone who talks about an application for a ban must keep an eye on the hurdles,” said Ramelow of the German Press Agency in Erfurt. These are high, as was shown a few years ago by the unsuccessful ban proceedings against the right-wing extremist NPD before the constitutional court in Karlsruhe.
After that, it’s about the power and threat of a party for democracy, which has to be proven in a court of law, said Ramelow. It is necessary to prove that a party is taking action against the Basic Law and thus the free and democratic basic order and at the same time has the potential to implement this goal. “Anyone who is talking about a ban must prove these two points beyond any doubt.”
Ramelow thus took a different stance than the SPD, which forms the government in Thuringia together with the Left and Greens. The SPD state chairman and interior minister Georg Maier and the vice president of the SPD state parliament, Dorothea Marx, had spoken out in favor of preparing a ban on the AfD. Among other things, Maier referred to the arrest of an AfD politician after the nationwide raid because of preparations for a coup by “Reich citizens”.
The Prime Minister advocated letting the responsible authorities do their job before a public debate on the ban. It’s not about opinions, but about evidence that will stand up in court that the AfD wants to destroy the state. In the state parliament in Erfurt, the AfD is the third largest group after the left and the CDU.
The party, with its controversial chairman Björn Höcke, is already being observed in Thuringia by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution because of certain extremist efforts. In some polls in recent weeks, it was the strongest party in Thuringia. However, a ban procedure is not about a state association, but the entire AfD.
