German Chancellor Olaf Scholz expressed caution on Wednesday over trying to ban the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) after the party scored successes in recent state-level elections.
“A whole lot of other things are required first of all,” Scholz told a town hall meeting in Schwerin, north-west of Berlin, a day before the country marks German Unity Day. This included continued monitoring of the party by the domestic intelligence services, he said.
Legal proceedings needed to be prepared extremely carefully, Scholz said. “And for that reason, this is not on the agenda.”
The chancellor reminded the meeting of the high hurdles for banning a political party in Germany and noted that all recent such attempts had failed before the courts.
Scholz appealed to people to confront the AfD. “We have to be clear in what we do as citizens,” he said. “We do not have to accept this. We must oppose and convince our neighbour. That is also part of this,” the chancellor said.
The AfD is currently being monitored for suspected extreme political activity by the federal domestic intelligence agency, and certain state-level AfD associations are rated as extremist by the relevant state intelligence agencies.
The party secured around 30% of the vote in recent elections to three state parliaments.
