Berlin’s Justice Senator Felor Badenberg (CDU) currently sees no legal means to ban the AfD nationwide.
“At present, only three of the total 16 AfD state associations have been proven to be right-extremist” the CDU politician said to the “World”. “Three out of 16, that’s not enough, under no circumstances.” Moreover, one would not find enough in the party’s program to support a ban procedure.”
Before her appointment as Senator, Badenberg was the vice-president of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) until April 2023 and had initiated the classification of the party as a suspected right-extremist case in the Cologne authority. Instead of a general ban on the AfD, she sees more “other possibilities to confront the extremist offshoots of the party”. This is where politics has so far failed to effectively use the available range of instruments.
Badenberg considers it promising to file ban applications against individual AfD state associations at the Constitutional Court, which have already been classified as securely right-extremist by the constitutional protection authorities. This concerns the organizations in Thuringia, Saxony, and Saxony-Anhalt. Badenberg told the “World”: “For the Thuringian AfD state association, for example, it has long been unchallenged that all the requirements for a ban are met.” The party’s leader Höcke’s wording is unambiguous, according to Badenberg.
Filing ban applications against individual state associations would be a novelty. Badenberg explains that it would be venturing into uncharted procedural territory, but it’s worth a try. If such a move were to be successful, all the members of the banned state association would lose their mandates, including at the European, federal, and local levels. In this case, it would not be permissible to form a new organization either.
Badenberg, however, adds a condition: “It should not be denied to a party to found a new state association. But not with the old personnel.” There would have to be a credible renewal. “To put it bluntly: Then Höcke would be out” said Badenberg to the “World”.