The BBC reports: "AfD classified as extreme-right by German intelligence." The lede pretty much sums up the issue:
Germany's Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party has been designated as right-wing extremist by the country's federal office for the protection of the constitution.
"The ethnicity- and ancestry-based understanding of the people prevailing within the party is incompatible with the free democratic order," the domestic intelligence agency said in a statement.
The AfD came second in federal elections in February, winning a record 152 seats in the 630-seat parliament with 20.8% of the vote.
That is, the AfD is opposed to immigration and is increasingly popular. And that is why all of the other major political parties are united to oppose it.
AfD joint leaders Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla said the decision was "clearly politically motivated" and a "severe blow to German democracy". They argued their party was being "discredited and criminalised" shortly before the change of government.
The far-right AfD had already been placed under observation for suspected extremism in Germany, and the intelligence agency had also classed it as right-wing extremist in three states in the east, where its popularity is highest.
The agency, or Verfassungschutz, said specifically that the AfD did not consider citizens of a "migration background from predominantly Muslim countries" as equal members of the German people.
AfD deputy chairman Stephan Brandner said the decision was "complete nonsense, has absolutely nothing to do with law and order".
However, acting Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said the agency had made a clear and unambiguous decision with "no political influence whatsoever", after a comprehensive review and a report of 1,100 pages.
Bundestag Vice-President Andrea Lindholz said that as a designated right-wing extremist group the AfD should not be treated as other parties, especially in parliament.
Because of their large number of seats, AfD members could be eligible to chair parliamentary committees, but Lindholz said that idea was now "almost unthinkable".
Because the basic function of most European "democracies" is to disenfranchise anyone that disagrees with the current immigration policy or, more importantly, might upset the gravy train of tax dollars from the tax payers and into the pockets of the wealthy and powerful. And the next step, according to the article, is to outright ban the AfD.
As David Strom, writing at Hot Air, points out: "Elections are being canceled, censorship is running amok, people are getting arrested for speaking, and now the most popular party in Germany is on the edge of getting banned because it threatens the power of the German elite." But to liberals, that is how "democracy" is supposed to work. What type of democracy would it be, the elites think, if the peasantry and the peons had any say in government?
Strom continues:
There is no doubt that the AfD is, indeed, a major challenger to the established political consensus of the transnational elite, just as Marine LePen and other populist leaders who are getting crushed around Europe. But that challenge to the consensus is not to the political order itself, but to the policies that Europeans have been opposing for years. The AfD is popular not because they are threatening democracy, but because they are trying to give a democratic voice to people who object to the increasingly self-destructive and anti-democratic elite.
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Germany already has created a new Stasi--an intelligence community that identifies and labels dissenters as threats to the state--and created a police unit to seek out and silence people for posting memes and sentiments that are unapproved by the government. Now they are on the threshold of banning the democratic expression of any dissent at all from the current policy consensus.
The author also argues that the more the German government tries to stifle dissent, the more it will encourage extremism. But perhaps that is the point. It gives the government an excuse to further crack down on the opposition party and scare people away from the AfD. Most people, if their livelihood and reputation are threatened, will follow the easier path and abandon the AfD--make the "right choice" as gangsters and politicians like to say.
And they don't even see it . . . (smh)
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