Germany’s Social Democratic Party says first legal steps should be taken to ban the far-right AfD party as unconstitutional. Conservative lawmakers are less keen on the idea.
A number of Germany’s conservative lawmakers have called for a cautious approach after the Social Democratic Party (SPD), the junior coalition partner, on Sunday passed a motion calling for preparations to ban the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.
The debate on whether to ban the AfD, which forms the strongest opposition force in parliament, has gained momentum after it was reclassified by Germany’s domestic intelligence agency in May as a “confirmed right-wing extremist” group — an assessment that is now under court review after a legal challenge by the party.
While I agree with the goal, this doesn’t make the underlying voter sentiment go away. What is the German government doing to address the underlying reasons for AFD’s rise? Regardless of their veracity, those thoughts are prevalent enough to cause this problem. While they might lessen, they won’t simply go away with the party if it’s banned. They have to be addressed, one way or another. I’m in the US, and I would argue that, out side of his base, most Trump voters don’t like the guy at all. Yet the Democrats’ “We’re not them” message has so far not been an consistent winner!
This completely ignores the fact that the AfD is a key part of encouraging that sentiment. They get paid tax money to promote hate and undermine democracy. Millionaires get tax credit by funding them. Media is forced to give them space. All this ends when they’re banned. Will the same people try again and again? Yes, but democracy is about fighting again and again for your rights.
Outlaw tax credit to political parties. Outlaw hatespeech and enforce it. Outlaw media monopolies and promote healthy journalists that will challenge the ideas expressed on their station.
I think most of us are struggling with this issue, but I’m really not sure what to do about it. Is banning them outright bad? Maybe? I just don’t know.
We’re all stuck in a planet scale tolerance paradox, and I don’t think any current solution is particularly convincing or palatable.
In the early 90s something similar happened in Belgium (1).
What lessened the extremism in the following couple of elections was investment (in infrastructure, healthcare, economic opportunities, etc) outside of the cities as well.
It turned out that for every tax frank gathered, 80 cents were spend on prettifying the larger cities and the major port. People were mostly (rightly?) pissed off that government represented a terrible ROI for the same group of people for decades. They would’ve been better of without a federal government. They saw their lives get worse, whilst at the same time that government applauded themselves for the great things they achieved.
I’m not sure how feasible the same solution is today, as there’s very little investment budget anyways. Most of tax revenue goes to pensions and healthcare of a reversed population pyramid.
Peoples opinions are very much shaped by social pressure.
Can take people out of the soviet, but can’t take soviet out of the people (1).
Sadly it’s a system of thought that isn’t concerned with observable reality. It’s a sentiment I recognise in most (political) extremists: the idea that your problems must be someone else’s fault (the brown, women, billionairs, … pick your poison).
And, as you noticed, banning it will indeed only validate that sentiment.
(I grew up in DDR, luckily left in early 90s. A solution is therapy, as those people are stuck in generational trauma, which is known to lessen or completely void you of empathy. But that doesn’t scale to halve a country).
Exactly. This is a bandaid / plaster.
Deal with the real problem. Be honest about why people are upset. Let them actually speak their minds without judgement. Then, analyse it. Find solutions.
Banning a social movement of this scale is madness.
Exactly. The solution to people saying “Foreigners are taking our jobs” is not to outlaw saying “Foreigners are taking our jobs” (though the AfD has done enough other things that warrant a ban), it’s not to get rid of foreigners, it’s not even to create more jobs. It’s to make sure that people have at least their most important needs (housing, food, transport, access to information, basic entertainment) covered even with a part-time job or no job at all. Instead the CDU/CSU tries to brand everyone who doesn’t work 60 hours per week until they’re 70 as lazy. Guess what? There are way more people out there who would like to work but can’t (for whatever reason) than ones who actively try to cheat the system. And no increase of weekly working time, no mandatory Excel training for unemployed people and no right-shift of politics will solve that.
Show people that the left and center are able to provide what they need and they will have no reason to blame minorities for their problems.
Billionares existing while people are forced to slave away practically all of their life is obscene. For billionaires to then go on to use that wealth to do anything and everything to the point of wearing down the fabric of society and fundamentally disrupting peace just to perpetuate this system is maddening and unacceptable. It’s on leftist parties to fix this problem peacefully.
I wonder if they can, with the reversed population pyramid most EU countries experience.
The capitalist class can’t make the machine run without unnecessary suffering and death. They used to be able to keep it out of sight in the global South and Asia. Through greed, they kept bringing more and more to the global West. Too many westerners still handwave it away and bury their heads, but as population, and thus unnecessary suffering and death increases, so too the population that doesn’t look away and entertain themselves to stop thinking and talking about it. We are a threat, so expect worsening conditions to be rapidly escalated. That said, hold hope and keep working for a more equitable day.