946
submitted 3 days 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

top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[-] whereisk@lemmy.world 68 points 2 days 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 days ago

Wow W Greece 💯🙌🏻

load more comments (10 replies)
[-] puddinghelmet@feddit.nl 34 points 2 days ago

AFD should be banned... Threat to democracy tf

[-] AntelopeRoom@lemm.ee 41 points 2 days ago

Learn from history and America. No half measures. If you're going to label them extremists, you also have to break them.

[-] kent_eh@lemmy.ca 7 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Learn?

The Americans are doing the opposite - they're complaining that AFD has been labeled an extremist organization.

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/05/02/marco-rubio-germany-afd-00324283

[-] ZombieMantis@lemmy.world 15 points 2 days ago

America's mistake was not putting down the movement when we had the chance. Germany has the chance to quash the AFD, and work on the issues of the nation. That's the lesson to be learned.

[-] ArchmageAzor@lemmy.world 101 points 3 days 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 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days 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.

load more comments (4 replies)
[-] Madison420@lemmy.world 22 points 3 days 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

load more comments (3 replies)
[-] taladar@sh.itjust.works 23 points 3 days 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.

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
[-] electric_nan@lemmy.ml 40 points 2 days 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.

load more comments (21 replies)
[-] solrize@lemmy.world 78 points 3 days 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 3 days 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 3 days 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.

load more comments (3 replies)
[-] jupyter_rain@discuss.tchncs.de 35 points 3 days 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.

load more comments (2 replies)
load more comments (8 replies)
[-] SorteKanin@feddit.dk 6 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

What does it mean if a democracy bans a party that the voters want to elect?

To be fair, 80% of voters did not vote for AfD - and if 80% of voters want to ban a party? Well, that is democracy. Although it's a dangerous tool to use.

The US is way more fucked, as more people actually voted for Trump than not.

[-] Redex68@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

Yeah but that's an example of tyranny by the majority. Just because a majority of people want something doesn't make it right. In theory I like the idea od banning the AFD, but I'm scared of the potential backlash it could cause and what the consequences could be. In the modern day when people are so segregated in their own bubbles, I feel like this could make them more extremist (“Look, I was right, they're just trying to silence the truth")

load more comments (29 replies)
[-] puddinghelmet@feddit.nl 17 points 2 days 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 days ago

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

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] SCmSTR 23 points 3 days ago

YOU DON'T SAY

[-] AnarchistArtificer@slrpnk.net 16 points 2 days 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.

[-] nshibj@lemmy.world 20 points 3 days ago

And what will Germany do about it? NOTHING!

load more comments (3 replies)
[-] lka1988@sh.itjust.works 26 points 3 days ago

entire AfD 'extremist'

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

load more comments (2 replies)
load more comments
view more: next ›
this post was submitted on 02 May 2025
946 points (100.0% liked)

World News

46368 readers
2256 users here now

A community for discussing events around the World

Rules:

Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.


Lemmy World Partners

News !news@lemmy.world

Politics !politics@lemmy.world

World Politics !globalpolitics@lemmy.world


Recommendations

For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS