Representatives of Germany’s two most powerful establishment parties are comfortable publicly expressing the view that a popular rival should be suppressed.
German populist party Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) is enjoying unprecedented support.
Recent polls show as much as 21 percent of the German electorate would support the party, which would secure it the second-highest number of seats in the Bundestag. This comes as Germans contend with inflation, mounting pressure in the energy and real estate sectors, and a perception that the migration crisis in Germany is getting worse.
Rather than engaging with the populists, as in Sweden, or incorporating parts of their platform, as in Denmark, the German political establishment speaks of banning the outsider rivals.
Last week, President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, legally barred from pronouncements on party politics, ominously declared, “The constitution cannot encompass those who are enemies of the constitution,” sparking the recent debate. German law allows suppression of a party or its members on the charge of “seek[ing] to undermine or abolish the free democratic basic order” of the German state.