Germany’s Merz says ban on far-right AfD won’t solve problem
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Germany's new Chancellor Friedrich Merz said the government would carefully evaluate the intelligence agency report before drawing its own conclusions.
PHOTO: REUTERS
BERLIN - Germany’s new Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on May 6 that simply banning the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) would not end the groundswell of support for it, noting it was key instead to fight the causes.
The designation last week of the AfD as an “extremist” entity by the German domestic intelligence agency has revived a debate about whether lawmakers should seek a ban on the anti-Muslim, nationalist party.
In one of his first interviews since being sworn in as chancellor earlier on May 6, Mr Merz said the government would carefully evaluate the intelligence agency report before drawing its own conclusions.
“But I would also like to add: 10 million AfD voters – you can’t ban them,” the conservative politician said. “You have to engage with them factually and on substance.
“And I want to do everything in this federal government to help people regain trust in the political centre – so that they no longer feel the need to vote for a party like the AfD.”
The AfD came in second in February’s federal election, scoring the best performance of any far-right party in Germany since World War II. Support for the party has continued to climb in recent months, with the AfD even topping some opinion polls, ahead of Mr Merz’s conservatives.
The domestic spy agency’s classification of the AfD as extremist will enable it to step up monitoring of what is now the country’s biggest opposition party, which has decried the move as a “blow against democracy”.
Since the election of Mr Donald Trump as US president, the party now has powerful backers on the other side of the Atlantic.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said last week that Germany should reverse course on branding the AfD as “extremist”, while US billionaire Elon Musk, who threw his support behind the party ahead of the February elections, warned against banning it.
While Mr Merz has consistently ruled out officially cooperating with the AfD, he welcomed its backing in January for an anti-migration motion in Parliament, breaking a taboo on any kind of collaboration with the party and raising questions about whether he might seek to normalise relations with it. REUTERS
