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submitted 2 months ago by Vittelius@feddit.org to c/world@lemmy.world

Germany's spy agency BfV has labeled the entirety of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party as an extremist entity.

The BfV domestic intelligence agency, which is in charge of safeguarding Germany's constitutional order, said the announcement comes after an "intense and comprehensive" examination.

"The ethnicity-and ancestry-based conception of the people that predominates within the party is not compatible with the free democratic order," the BfV said on Friday.

Hopefully this inspires the other parties to to start the process to see the AfD banned. I know the report might not look like much, because of how obvious the findings are. But previous attempts at banning them have failed because such an official report was missing. So maybe our political system starts getting its shit together.

As we say in Germany: Hope dies last

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[-] ArchmageAzor@lemmy.world 101 points 2 months ago

AfD are Nazis in all but name. How is it they remain unprosecuted in a nation where swastikas and the Hitler salute are outlawed?

[-] InvertedParallax@lemm.ee 53 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

They're not just nazis, they're nazis sponsored and funded by putin.

This is documented, but racists would rather support their literal enemy than dare accept changing their worldview in any way.

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[-] taladar@sh.itjust.works 23 points 2 months ago

One of the main contributors is probably that the last time they tried banned an extremist party on the right (the NPD) it didn't work because they didn't present enough evidence according to the courts, that made everyone involved hesitant this time (or at least that is the excuse they used). Or rather, it failed twice, once because they had agents within the party and the other time for lack of evidence. Obviously obtaining that evidence without running into the first problem again is tricky.

[-] bob_lemon@feddit.org 14 points 2 months ago

Small correction: the NPD was not banned because they were largely irrelevant. They had little to no influence on politics, which is why the court argued that a ban would be inappropriate.

[-] Madison420@lemmy.world 22 points 2 months ago

Plausible deniability but they do get in trouble pretty routinely. The last big one iirc was the poster with the two kids saluting each other to form a roofline with a kitchy caption about housing.

https://www.thetimes.com/world/europe/article/afd-accused-nazi-symbolism-election-germany-hm8dv7nql

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[-] solrize@lemmy.world 78 points 2 months ago

What does it mean if a democracy bans a party that the voters want to elect? Better to ask what failure of the system made that party popular in the first place. We have a similar situation in the US fwiw.

[-] bjoern_tantau@swg-empire.de 161 points 2 months ago

True, but then again we have lived through that already and know that dangerous parties can be elected democratically. That is exactly the reason why we have this mechanism in place.

An anti democratic party has no right to be elected democratically.

[-] slevinkelevra@sh.itjust.works 90 points 2 months ago

Exactly. Democracy is famously the only system which allows to be dismantled through its own tools. That is why the German system is called "Wehrhafte Demokratie" (defensive democracy) to not end up like the Weimar Republic.

[-] LustyArgonianMana@lemmy.world 13 points 2 months ago

The biggest criticism of democracy is that it might become something else.

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[-] jupyter_rain@discuss.tchncs.de 35 points 2 months ago

I fear, that many if not most people do not understand why AFD is an undemocratic party or why this would even matter for them.

[-] taladar@sh.itjust.works 12 points 2 months ago

I think that problem is closely related to the issue that people think it can not get much worse for them when in reality there is a long, long way down from even the poorest and least represented people in our German society to the poorest people in the worst societies that actually existed in history or even the worst society imaginable with modern technology combined with the rulers from those worst socities in history.

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[-] Danquebec@sh.itjust.works 8 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

I understood the post you are replying to as saying "what will AfD voters do when their party is banned?".

In the case of the Nazis, we don't know because their party was never banned. We don't know what would have happened if the Nazi party had been banned.

I would be interested to know if we have historical cases of far-right parties that could have won the elections but were banned before they had the chance.

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[-] CosmoNova@lemmy.world 26 points 2 months ago

We had that situation in 1930s Germany and it was decided to address issues instead of banning Hitler’s Party even when they could.

[-] thisfro@slrpnk.net 15 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

There are other banned parties as well (such as the SRP, which was the new NSDAP basically), having large overlap with the AfD. It's not bad for democracy, if the requirements for banning are clear and enforced equally.

[-] raod_guitar@feddit.org 12 points 2 months ago

No need to play one off against the other. Yes, there are many things that need to change systemically. Yes, the AfD is a real danger and needs to be banned. Simple as that.

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[-] whereisk@lemmy.world 70 points 2 months ago

Greece banned golden dawn as a criminal organisation and while a lot of members splintered into other parties it was overall a success in nearly removing all their influence as a political organisation from Greek politics - so, overall banning the fascist party, at least in one instance, worked.

[-] puddinghelmet@feddit.nl 21 points 2 months ago

Wow W Greece 💯🙌🏻

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[-] electric_nan@lemmy.ml 40 points 2 months ago

"The ethnicity-and ancestry-based conception of the people that predominates within the party is not compatible with the free democratic order,"

Great news, but also ironic considering German uncritical support for Israel.

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[-] puddinghelmet@feddit.nl 34 points 2 months ago

AFD should be banned... Threat to democracy tf

[-] lka1988@sh.itjust.works 26 points 2 months ago

entire AfD 'extremist'

No shit, sherlock, it doesn't take a genius to figure that out.

[-] Buffalox@lemmy.world 11 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Have you even seen some of the mindblowing excuses people have for why MAGA people in USA are not necessarily extreme?
That it's for job security, or because of drug trade or all sorts of weird reasons that would absolutely be valid if they weren't based on falsehoods wrapped in fascism.

I'm actually quite surprised that the conclusion is that ALL of AfD are extremists. Maybe if USA had done the same with Trump, and he and his followers were concluded to be extremists, more would have been done to stop him?

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[-] SCmSTR 23 points 2 months ago

YOU DON'T SAY

[-] Aceticon@lemmy.dbzer0.com 21 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

“The ethnicity-and ancestry-based conception of the people that predominates within the party is not compatible with the free democratic order,” the BfV said on Friday.

Pretty much the entirety of the German political mainstream is right now "unwaveringly supporting" a fascist regime commiting an extreme Genocide in Gaza, and that support has been very openly because of the ethnicity the murderers claim to represent, or in other words, due to "ethnicity-and ancestry-based conceptions".

Normalize race as an excuse to support no matter what those commiting the most atrocious of actions and all that it takes is to add "if it applies to them, then surely it applies to us" to that normalized racism to get something like the ideology of the AfD.

German politicians have long been plowing and fertilizing the field from which the AfD sprouted with great vigour.

This right now is just hypocrisy: the AfD is but the tip of the iceberg which is the view in Germany that the way people are treated should depend on their race and even the most horrible of deeds are excusable if one's race is the right one.

[-] taladar@sh.itjust.works 21 points 2 months ago

I am so sick and tired of people using the Gaza genocide as an excuse for political action or inaction in their own countries without any evidence that their preferred option changes anything about the Gaza genocide. Isn't it enough that you people got Trump elected in the US by implying that somehow Kamala Harris would do less against it than the literal admirer of dictators?

[-] LustyArgonianMana@lemmy.world 13 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Agree. Also, Gaza has been an issue for decades and theres other genocides currently happening, i genuinely dont understand the laser focus on Gaza when our own Latino and Native American populations are being genocided by our own actual government. These people freak out over housing and food in Gaza while ignoring the homelessness and starvation crisis here. They donate to (likely completely fake, set up by Israel or other countries) Gaza while walking past homeless people here with absolutely no shame. They wear merch and bracelets and scarves to show support of Gaza and moral superiority, while they ignore the homeless here at a broad level. Homelessness is genocide of the poor and disabled.

Yes, Gaza is an issue and has been for decades. Any genocide or intentional faminine is absolutely wrong. It's been wrong for a while. I remember talking about Israel with Jewish friends in 2009 and it was considered a pretty obscure geopolitical topic for the US then (most average citizens didnt know or have an opinion).

But right now it's literally a psyop to trick young and gullible people into being against Kamala so Trump would be elected. Trump is friends with Netanyahu and was his preferred candidate. Like Iran Contra, Netanyahu deliberately sabotaged the hostage deals and ceasefires to elect Trump, and the Gaza saviors (many fake bots from India, Iran, and Russia*) ate the bait. Now that he doesnt need them, they are being rounded up, unless they espouse anti-Jewish, pro-Nazi rhetoric - he needs Nazis so Russia can have an excuse to invade Alaska/the US. The Nazi excuse is the same reason Russia invaded Ukraine. They are trying to justify WW3 with same excuses as WW2, and they need public sentiment to be on their side so they have to set up a narrative.

BRICS is trying to usurp western power and start their own currency that will be gold back, precious metals backed, and oil backed, and perhaps human backed (eg organs, hair, slaves, started w Uyghers).

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[-] barsoap@lemm.ee 10 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

It's a pickle. The unwavering support is for Israel and its existence, not for the fascist regime or the genocide. Germany sent multiple sternly worded letters regarding the latter.

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[-] head_socj@midwest.social 10 points 2 months ago

You're conflating political ideologies of radical groups with a false narrative that the entirety of Germany is inherently racist, and therefore irredeemable. I don't disagree with your points regarding genocide in Gaza, but you're also racist AF.

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[-] nshibj@lemmy.world 20 points 2 months ago

And what will Germany do about it? NOTHING!

[-] IndustryStandard@lemmy.world 12 points 2 months ago

Punch left as hard as possible.

[-] puddinghelmet@feddit.nl 9 points 2 months ago

They can mass spy on them now and get a valid legal reason to ban them with proof

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[-] puddinghelmet@feddit.nl 17 points 2 months ago

Pray they find a valid legal reason to ban them soon now that they can mass spy on them :)

[-] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 11 points 2 months ago

They won't ban them. Half the German police are members

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[-] AnarchistArtificer@slrpnk.net 16 points 2 months ago

"But previous attempts at banning them have failed because such an official report was missing."

Man, this is peak modern society, and the absurdity makes me laugh. I don't mean that in a derisive way, more in a "wow, making democracy work is haaard ". Hopefully this will lead to something positive though, even if I'm anxious that banning a party like the AfD may lead to some things worsening.

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this post was submitted on 02 May 2025
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