this post was submitted on 02 May 2025
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Germany's spy agency BfV has labeled the entirety of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party as an extremist entity.

The BfV domestic intelligence agency, which is in charge of safeguarding Germany's constitutional order, said the announcement comes after an "intense and comprehensive" examination.

"The ethnicity-and ancestry-based conception of the people that predominates within the party is not compatible with the free democratic order," the BfV said on Friday.

Hopefully this inspires the other parties to to start the process to see the AfD banned. I know the report might not look like much, because of how obvious the findings are. But previous attempts at banning them have failed because such an official report was missing. So maybe our political system starts getting its shit together.

As we say in Germany: Hope dies last

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[–] ArchmageAzor@lemmy.world 101 points 1 week ago (4 children)

AfD are Nazis in all but name. How is it they remain unprosecuted in a nation where swastikas and the Hitler salute are outlawed?

[–] InvertedParallax@lemm.ee 55 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (4 children)

They're not just nazis, they're nazis sponsored and funded by putin.

This is documented, but racists would rather support their literal enemy than dare accept changing their worldview in any way.

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[–] Madison420@lemmy.world 23 points 1 week ago (3 children)

Plausible deniability but they do get in trouble pretty routinely. The last big one iirc was the poster with the two kids saluting each other to form a roofline with a kitchy caption about housing.

https://www.thetimes.com/world/europe/article/afd-accused-nazi-symbolism-election-germany-hm8dv7nql

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[–] taladar@sh.itjust.works 21 points 1 week ago (1 children)

One of the main contributors is probably that the last time they tried banned an extremist party on the right (the NPD) it didn't work because they didn't present enough evidence according to the courts, that made everyone involved hesitant this time (or at least that is the excuse they used). Or rather, it failed twice, once because they had agents within the party and the other time for lack of evidence. Obviously obtaining that evidence without running into the first problem again is tricky.

[–] bob_lemon@feddit.org 15 points 1 week ago

Small correction: the NPD was not banned because they were largely irrelevant. They had little to no influence on politics, which is why the court argued that a ban would be inappropriate.

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[–] whereisk@lemmy.world 69 points 1 week ago (11 children)

Greece banned golden dawn as a criminal organisation and while a lot of members splintered into other parties it was overall a success in nearly removing all their influence as a political organisation from Greek politics - so, overall banning the fascist party, at least in one instance, worked.

[–] puddinghelmet@feddit.nl 21 points 1 week ago

Wow W Greece 💯🙌🏻

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[–] solrize@lemmy.world 55 points 1 week ago (29 children)

What does it mean if a democracy bans a party that the voters want to elect? Better to ask what failure of the system made that party popular in the first place. We have a similar situation in the US fwiw.

[–] bjoern_tantau@swg-empire.de 164 points 1 week ago (11 children)

True, but then again we have lived through that already and know that dangerous parties can be elected democratically. That is exactly the reason why we have this mechanism in place.

An anti democratic party has no right to be elected democratically.

[–] slevinkelevra@sh.itjust.works 91 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Exactly. Democracy is famously the only system which allows to be dismantled through its own tools. That is why the German system is called "Wehrhafte Demokratie" (defensive democracy) to not end up like the Weimar Republic.

[–] LustyArgonianMana@lemmy.world 13 points 1 week ago (2 children)

The biggest criticism of democracy is that it might become something else.

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[–] jupyter_rain@discuss.tchncs.de 34 points 1 week ago (2 children)

I fear, that many if not most people do not understand why AFD is an undemocratic party or why this would even matter for them.

[–] taladar@sh.itjust.works 12 points 1 week ago

I think that problem is closely related to the issue that people think it can not get much worse for them when in reality there is a long, long way down from even the poorest and least represented people in our German society to the poorest people in the worst societies that actually existed in history or even the worst society imaginable with modern technology combined with the rulers from those worst socities in history.

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[–] CosmoNova@lemmy.world 29 points 1 week ago

We had that situation in 1930s Germany and it was decided to address issues instead of banning Hitler’s Party even when they could.

[–] futatorius@lemm.ee 20 points 1 week ago (3 children)

The paradox of tolerance. Parties that violate the social contract of mutual tolerance deserve to be banned.

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[–] thisfro@slrpnk.net 17 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

There are other banned parties as well (such as the SRP, which was the new NSDAP basically), having large overlap with the AfD. It's not bad for democracy, if the requirements for banning are clear and enforced equally.

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[–] AntelopeRoom@lemm.ee 41 points 1 week ago (4 children)

Learn from history and America. No half measures. If you're going to label them extremists, you also have to break them.

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[–] electric_nan@lemmy.ml 39 points 1 week ago (52 children)

"The ethnicity-and ancestry-based conception of the people that predominates within the party is not compatible with the free democratic order,"

Great news, but also ironic considering German uncritical support for Israel.

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[–] puddinghelmet@feddit.nl 33 points 1 week ago

AFD should be banned... Threat to democracy tf

[–] lka1988@sh.itjust.works 23 points 1 week ago (4 children)

entire AfD 'extremist'

No shit, sherlock, it doesn't take a genius to figure that out.

[–] Worx@lemmynsfw.com 15 points 1 week ago (1 children)

But having it said in an official capacity is still important.

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[–] SCmSTR@lemmy.blahaj.zone 21 points 1 week ago

YOU DON'T SAY

[–] AnarchistArtificer@slrpnk.net 16 points 1 week ago

"But previous attempts at banning them have failed because such an official report was missing."

Man, this is peak modern society, and the absurdity makes me laugh. I don't mean that in a derisive way, more in a "wow, making democracy work is haaard ". Hopefully this will lead to something positive though, even if I'm anxious that banning a party like the AfD may lead to some things worsening.

[–] puddinghelmet@feddit.nl 15 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Pray they find a valid legal reason to ban them soon now that they can mass spy on them :)

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[–] nshibj@lemmy.world 12 points 1 week ago (3 children)

And what will Germany do about it? NOTHING!

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