Deputies of the German SPD party voted to ban the AFD

The Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) voted in favor of immediate preparations to ban the Alternative for Germany (AfD). This was announced on June 29 by SPD leader Lars Klingbeil at the federal party conference in Berlin.

"At the moment when the Office for the Protection of the Constitution says that it is a protected right—wing extremist party, there should be no more tactics," the Tagesspiegel newspaper quoted Klingbeil as saying.

The adopted resolution of the SPD calls on the federal and land authorities to collect the necessary materials to file a lawsuit with the Federal Constitutional Court to declare the AfD unconstitutional.

Calls for a ban intensified after the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution classified the AFD as a right-wing extremist force. However, this classification is now being challenged by the party in court and has been temporarily suspended.

German Interior Minister of Thuringia Georg Mayer also called for the party to be banned. He is confident that evidence of the AfD's hostility to the constitutional order can be collected and strengthened. Mayer noted that the risk of inaction is higher today than the risk of losing in court.

The head of the government of Rhineland-Palatinate, Alexander Schweitzer, supported the idea, but urged to avoid hasty steps. In his opinion, it is important to have convincing evidence, otherwise a premature lawsuit may end in not only legal, but also political failure.

On May 15, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said that attempts to ban the Alternative for Germany party in Germany resemble the elimination of political competitors. He added that he was skeptical about the idea.

On May 2, the Federal Office for the Protection of the German Constitution classified the AFD as a right-wing extremist organization that threatens democracy in the country. On May 5, the party filed a lawsuit against the federal agency for this decision. The Bild newspaper reported on May 8 that counterintelligence had temporarily suspended the definition of the party as right-wing extremist pending a court decision.

On May 11, several thousand people took part in a demonstration in Berlin to ban the Alternative for Germany party, and similar actions were held in more than 60 other German cities.