German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said today that he was "very skeptical" of the growing calls to ban the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party. This comes against the backdrop of the decision of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, which officially classifies the party as a "confirmed far-right extremist organization", DPA reported.
In an interview with the weekly Die Zeit, Merz stressed that banning a political party requires clear proof that it is acting "aggressively" against the free democratic order. "And the burden of proving this lies entirely with the state," he added.
On May 2, Germany's domestic intelligence service upgraded the AfD's status from “suspected“ of being a “confirmed“ extremist organization. The party, which currently has the second largest number of seats in the German parliament, appealed the decision in court, which resulted in its implementation being temporarily suspended.
This new classification allows security services to step up surveillance of the party and its members. This has raised the question again of whether the AfD should be officially banned - something that can only happen after a decision by the Constitutional Court at the request of both houses of parliament or the Bundestag itself.
Merz, however, strongly disagreed with such an approach. “I have always been against the idea of parliament banning a political party,“ he said. “To me, this looks too much like eliminating political opponents.“