Germany’s left-wing Social Democratic Party (SPD), which led the federal government until May, has launched a formal push to ban the populist Alternative for Germany (AfD) party after SPD delegates voted unanimously on June 29 to create a federal working group tasked with gathering evidence of what they describe as the AfD’s “overwhelming” extremism.
The SPD accuses the anti-mass immigration party, which placed second in this year’s federal elections, of threatening Germany’s constitution and democratic order by promoting policies like “remigration,” which SPD leaders claim violates human dignity.
Under German law, only the Federal Constitutional Court can ban a political party, requiring a two-thirds majority of Justices. A ban would result in the AfD’s dissolution, seizure of its assets, and prohibition of its symbols and logos, with any future attempt to rebrand under a similar name also blocked.
The effort comes as the AfD gains momentum, particularly in eastern Germany. A recent poll shows the AfD at 32 percent, nine points ahead of the SPD. The move follows the AfD’s designation as an extremist group by Germany’s domestic intelligence agency, the Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz (BfV), which had cleared the way for increased surveillance before the party filed a lawsuit challenging the label. The BfV has since paused the designation.
Elon Musk called the proposed ban “an extreme attack on democracy,” while newly elected Chancellor Friedrich Merz of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) warned, “Ten million AfD voters—you can’t ban them. You have to engage with them factually and on substance.” The Trump administration joined the backlash, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio condemning the SPD’s effort as “tyranny in disguise,” arguing that what is truly extremist are the establishment’s open border immigration policies that the AfD opposes.
