Members of Angela Merkel‘s so-called “conservative” Christian Democrats (CDU) have begun drawing up legislation that would ban the populist Alternative for Germany (AfD) Party.
Marco Wanderwitz, a Member of the German Bundestag and former Eastern Commissioner of the Federal Government, who is currently drafting the legislation, requires 36 other Bundestag members to support the proposal to ensure the parliament votes on the motion later this year.
If banned, the AfD would be forced to forfeit all administrative and political positions it has already secured across the country and the European continent, with the government also permitted to seize all the party’s assets and resources.
“We are dealing with a party that seriously endangers our free democratic basic order and the state as a whole,” Wanderwitz told a German broadcaster last week before adding: “that’s why it’s high time to ban them.”
Much of the German establishment, including Chancellor Olaf Scholz, has already begun proposing a ban on the party as it began rising in the national polls. It is currently in second place behind the CDU with 22.5 percent support.