More than 1,000 German lawyers have asked the Bundestag to ban Alternative for Germany (Alternative für Deutschland, AfD) as the party continues to gain popularity. Some 1,051 lawyers, judges, public prosecutors and legal trainees have signed an open letter calling for a ban on the far-right organisation, according to the Republikanischer Anwältinnen- und Anwälteverein (RAV, Republican Lawyers' Association).
The letter was addressed to the federal government and members of the Bundestag. The letter initially had just 500 signatures in July but quickly doubled this week. The basis for the call to ban the AfD was a legal opinion issued by the Gesellschaft für Freiheitsrechte (Society for Civil Rights, GFF) stating that 'the AfD's policies violate both the principle of human dignity enshrined in the Basic Law and the democratic principle, rendering the party unconstitutional.'
Legal Basis
According to the Basic Law, parties can be banned by the Federal Constitutional Court when it threatens democracy. Specifically, Article 21, Paragraph 2 of the Basic Law deems parties or organisations to be unconstitutional when they 'seek, by reason of their aims or the behaviour of their adherents, to undermine or abolish the free democratic basic order to endanger the existence of the Federal Republic of Germany.'
'The Basic Law provides us with the tool of a party ban, which must finally be applied,' said Angela Furmaniak of RAV. In 2024, AfD gained a lot of credibility when it became the first far-right political party to win a state election in Germany since World War II, despite a largely negative reputation among the general German population.
'Around one in five (19%) Germans see AfD favourably, but a large majority (79%) have a negative opinion of the party,' a Pew Research survey noted. Germans with lower levels of education are 10% more likely to approve of AfD. Men are also more in favour of the party compared to women.
AfD opposes aid to Ukraine, advocates closer ties with Russia, and maintains a strong anti-immigration stance.
'A Ban on AfD Is a Ban on Democracy'
Stefan Möller, AfD's deputy federal spokesperson, said the extreme left merely wants to eliminate political competition. 'The renewed call for a ban fits into the communication strategy pursued for months by politically extreme left-wing forces, which aims to make the elimination of the strongest political party in the polls the dominant social issue,' he said.
He continued: 'At its core, this drumbeat for an AfD ban once again raises the fundamental question of the system itself. Because anyone who wants to ban democracy—and that is precisely what these lawyers want when they aim to eliminate a party with 30-40 percent of the vote—makes themselves the ultimate enemy of the free and democratic order.'
According to the 2024 Pew Research, AfD has been gaining popularity in recent years while the Social Democratic Party has been losing steam. AfD only had a 5% favourability rating in 2021 until it reached 19% in 2024. Meanwhile, the democratic party enjoyed a 67% favourable rating in 2022 but fell to just 39% in 2024.
Reddit Questions Strength of Ban
While the image of a thousand lawyers standing up against a political party may seem heavy, one Reddit user asked: 'What's 1,000 lawyers as a percentage of the total?' According to the German Federal Bar (Bundesrechtsanwaltskammer, BRAK), there are 167,500 German lawyers accepted to the 28 German regional Bars.
