German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has spoken out against possible attempts to ban the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), at least for the time being.
“A ban is very difficult in a democracy and that is why there are very high hurdles,” Scholz said in a speech to German Catholics in the central German city of Erfurt on Friday.
He said Germany’s domestic intelligence service BfV must do its job by investigating potential threats to the country’s democracy and implementing the law.
Scholz said efforts to make the German constitution more robust in the face of potential anti-democratic threats are more promising. For example, he pointed to recent changes in the way political parties are funded in Germany, in order to deny government funding to extremist groups.
“That is the setting in which I would put myself for the time being,” said Scholz. “I don’t think a ban is on the horizon now.”
Scholz emphasized that right-wing populist parties have also grown in other countries such as Finland, Sweden and Austria, even though those countries are not plagued by major crises or problems.
Right-wing populists take advantage of the uncertainty about the future and focus on divisions instead of solutions, the Chancellor said.
The most important question is how to counter the political appeal of far-right populism, Scholz said. According to him, this could only succeed on the merits.
