Linken Chief Jan van Aken Criticizes Alexander Dobrindt for His Statements on an AfD Ban
Jan van Aken, the head of the Left Party (Linken), has sharply criticized Alexander Dobrindt, the new Federal Minister of the Interior, for his statements on an AfD ban. Dobrindt had previously called for the banning of the Left Party, but now opposes an AfD ban, which van Aken finds absurd. Van Aken told the “Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland” that such a two-faced approach to antidemocratic measures cannot make someone a good Interior Minister. Dobrindt, as the CSU General Secretary, had in 2012 called for the banning of the Left Party, stating that all efforts should be made to achieve a ban in the future. Dobrindt recently expressed his opposition to an AfD ban and suggested that the party should be “regulated out of existence”.