30 June 2025

Silencing the Opposition: Germany’s SPD Approves Plan To Ban AfD

True to their Marxist roots, the SPD is trying to ban the only viable opposition to their advancing dictatorship. The worst thing is that they're not being opposed by the CDU, but it would benefit them, too.

From The European Conservative

By Javier Villamor

Rather than win back voters, the Social Democrats now hope to remove their rival through the courts.

Germany's ruling Social Democrats have launched a push to ban the AfD, the country’s main opposition party and the second most popular in February’s election. The move follows a key resolution passed at the SPD’s party congress in Berlin on Sunday, which calls for setting up a legal task force to lay the groundwork for the ban.

What looks like just another attack on the so-called “far right” actually reveals a troubling trend in German politics: parts of the establishment are trying to rewrite the rules of democracy when a political party—backed by millions—dares to stand up to them.

The SPD has repeatedly labeled the AfD as “ethno-nationalist” and “anti-democratic” to justify its legal attack. However, behind the lofty talk of defending “human dignity” and the “constitutional order,” lies a harsh reality check for the Socialists: they have lost touch with much of the population, particularly in the eastern regions, while the AfD keeps gaining ground and now speaks for a large part of the electorate.

“They shouldn’t be in Parliament,” exclaimed SPD co-chair and current Vice Chancellor Lars Klingbeil during the congress. His words, intended to convey strength, sound more like an admission of failure dressed up as a moral crusade. After losing 86 seats and being downgraded to junior partner in the new government led by the Christian Democrats of Friedrich Merz, the SPD is now trying to ban its rivals rather than defeat them at the ballot box.

The motion approved by the SPD stipulates that, if Germany’s domestic intelligence agency confirms AfD as “extremist,” the move to ban the party will begin. Notably, this initiative is similar to others at the regional level. In Thuringia, where the AfD won over 32% of the vote, politicians short on arguments now reach for the “defense of the constitution” as their last line of attack.

The attempt to ban AfD reflects not only fear of its growth, but also the contempt some parties have for genuine pluralism. It is the symptom of a managed democracy, where elites would rather jeopardize their legitimacy than yield power to an uncomfortable adversary.

German Socialists are not merely trying to eliminate a dissenting voice that harms them electorally. Straightforwardly, banning AfD also benefits the Christian Democrats (CDU). Both parties benefit, and both play off each other. It’s old-school bipartisanship at its most cynical.

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