Overview

• SPD party congress mandated preparations for a ban after the Verfassungsschutz classified the AfD as extremist, but no formal application has been filed.
• Sigmar Gabriel has publicly called the ban plan “dumm,” questioned the thinness of the intelligence report and urged the party to address voter grievances instead.
• Lars Klingbeil argues that invoking constitutional measures is a democratic duty now that the AfD faces an extremist classification.
• Legal experts warn that Germany’s high evidentiary threshold and two-thirds Federal Constitutional Court majority make a successful party ban unlikely.
• Critics including Friedrich Merz caution that banning the AfD would leave its parliamentary seats empty, risking shifts in legislative majorities.