German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Saturday that he is currently opposed to a ban on Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD).
He said domestic intelligence agencies should continue to monitor the group and collect material but warned that authorities must be “very careful about the process of interdiction.”
“The worst thing would be a process that you applied for that takes several years (…) and it could be ruined in the end,” Scholz said at a regional meeting in the city of Potsdam, near Berlin.
Under German law, the parliament or the government can apply to the Federal Constitutional Court for the banning of a particular group.
Earlier this month, a group of more than 100 lawmakers from different parties in the Bundestag – Germany’s lower house – petitioned for a ban. It remains to be seen whether the measure can win a majority.
Recently, 17 constitutional experts wrote to the internal affairs and legal affairs committees of the Bundestag, expressing the opinion that the ban process may have a chance of success.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) speaks at the SPD conference called the “election victory conference”. The conference marks the start of the SPD’s campaign for the first federal election in 2025. Kay Nietfeld/dpa
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