Irene Mihalic, the first Parliamentary Group Chair for the Green party in the Bundestag, is strongly urging the commencement of a ban procedure against the entire Alternative for Germany (AfD) party. She cautioned against compartmentalizing the debate by differentiating between individual political factions or regional branches within the party.
Speaking to the “Handelsblatt”, Mihalic expressed concern that discussions might lead to the conclusion that the AfD is composed of both a unconstitutional and a constitutionally compliant segment. While this division might have been plausible at the party’s inception, she now views the entirety of the AfD as being fundamentally opposed to the democratic constitution. She noted that the expert report published by the Society for Civil Rights convincingly supported this assessment.
Mihalic highlighted that minorities and political opponents are particularly menaced by the AfD. She states that the party poses a genuine threat to people with migration backgrounds, non-heterosexual individuals, and political adversaries who, according to the AfD’s stance, could face persecution and punishment. She called for the relevant constitutional bodies-the federal government, the Bundesrat, or the Bundestag-to finally initiate a review in Karlsruhe to ban the whole AfD.
The Green party is already lobbying other parliamentary groups within the Bundestag to take steps toward this goal, Mihalic confirmed. However, she reported that the CDU/CSU (Union) has not yet given an affirmative response.
Previously, the state government of Baden-Württemberg, led by Cem Özdemir (Greens), and the Federal Minister of Defence, Boris Pistorius (SPD), had advocated for banning the AfD, but specifically targeted the more nationalist regional chapters in Thuringia, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Brandenburg. Mihalic considers this limiting approach problematic. Nevertheless, she affirmed that she fully understood and shared the deep concern driving Özdemir’s and Pistorius’s initiatives regarding the state of democracy.
Under Article 21 of the Basic Law, parties are deemed unconstitutional if their objectives or the behavior of their members aims to impair or abolish the free democratic basic order, or if they threaten the existence of the Federal Republic of Germany. The Federal Constitutional Court determines the question of unconstitutionality; however, the court cannot initiate action on its own. A formal request for examination must be issued by the Bundestag, the Bundesrat, or the Federal Government.
