Unrelenting pressure to proscribe Germany's increasing popular extremist party, AfD, persists
The AfD, Germany's largest opposition party, has been at the centre of a heated debate regarding its future in German politics. With the party's unparalleled public approval and its designation as an extremist entity, the question of whether it should be banned has become a contentious issue.
In February, the AfD secured a record 20.8% of the vote in Germany's national election, marking the best performance by a far-right party since World War II. Since then, the party has topped several opinion polls, briefly putting it ahead of Friedrich Merz's centre-right party. As of April, the AfD was polling at a record 26%, two percentage points higher than the CDU, but current polls show the AfD at 24%, four points behind the CDU.
The legal path to banning the AfD is lengthy and largely unprecedented. The German constitution allows for parties to be banned if they are found to oppose or threaten the democratic constitutional order. The Federal Constitutional Court has the exclusive authority to decide on such bans after a formal motion is filed by entities such as the federal government, the Bundestag (parliament), or the Bundesrat (federal council).
In May 2025, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) officially classified the AfD as a "confirmed right-wing extremist endeavour," based on detailed findings that labeled the party as racist and anti-Muslim. This designation is significant because it provides legal grounds to initiate proceedings for exclusion from state funding and possible party ban motions.
The SPD's co-leader, Lars Klingbeil, has called for efforts to ban the AfD, while the CDU and CSU are hesitant, with some fearing the move could fuel far-right sympathies. The AfD has legally challenged its classification by the BfV, asserting that the designation violates freedoms of speech and legitimate political criticism. These court proceedings will influence the further steps toward a party ban.
The process of banning a party is deliberately rigorous, involving multiple state organs and judicial scrutiny, to protect democratic rights while preventing extremist threats to constitutional democracy. The AfD, if found unconstitutional, would be dissolved and banned from all political activity, and prohibited from creating any substitute organizations. Its sitting lawmakers would automatically lose their mandate at the regional, federal, and European levels.
If a ban were to occur, the 42 direct seats currently held by the AfD in the Bundestag would need to be filled by new candidates from other parties, while the remaining 110 seats, allocated using a party list system, would remain vacant until the next election cycle.
It's important to note that the Federal Constitutional Court has only banned two parties in Germany's history - the Socialist Reich Party (SRP) in 1952 and the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) in 1956. Repeated attempts to ban the neo-Nazi National Democratic Party of Germany (NPD) have failed, despite the court openly acknowledging the party as unconstitutional.
Lengthy legal proceedings could further heighten the AfD's platform and potentially incur the "wrath" of the Trump administration. The potential ban of the AfD and its implications for German democracy continue to be a topic of intense debate and scrutiny.
[1] Grundgesetz (German Constitution) [2] Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) [3] Social Democrats (SPD) [4] Centre-right party (CDU/CSU) [5] Civil service, police officers, and soldiers
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