First hearing on AfD ban held in Thuringia

In what is the first discussion of its kind in a German parliament, politicians, lawyers and public figures have taken part in a hearing on a potential AfD ban.

AfD ban discussed in Thuringia state parliament

At the request of die Linke’s Thuringia branch, experts, lawyers, politicians and public figures gathered in the state parliament in Erfurt on the evening of September 30 to discuss whether the AfD seeks to undermine the German democratic constitution and should be banned.

Comedian and presenter Hape Kerkeling, whose resistance fighter grandfather was imprisoned by the Nazis in 1933, was invited by die Linke as a public representative. Kerkeling's speech focused on the AfD’s approach to Germany’s Nazi past.

“A party that derives its raison d’être from stirring up hatred against minorities has no place in our country, with its dark and eventful history,” he told the hearing. “Any party that relativises, trivialises or downplays the crimes committed between 1933 and 1945 has no place within the constitutional framework.”

Thuringia’s State Office for the Protection of the Constitution has classified the local AfD branch as “proven right-wing extremist” since March 2021. This classification is based on leader Björn Höcke’s use of Nazi slogans during AfD campaigns and a subsequent trial which concluded Höcke could be legally considered a fascist. 

But more broadly, the classification is based on the party’s promotion of “völkisch nationalism”, which discriminates against Germans with a recent migration background and immigrants. Article 3 of the constitution rules that groups should not be victims of state-sponsored discrimination based on “sex, parentage, race, language and origin, faith, or religious and political opinion”. 

The discussion took place in one of the AfD’s heartlands. Back in September 2024, the party nabbed 32,8 percent of the vote in the state election, making it the first state election win for the far right since World War II. After refusing to form a coalition with the populist party, the state parliament has been governed by a CDU-SPD coalition. 

To speak on its behalf, the AfD sent lawyer, former CDU politician and president of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution until 2018, Hans-Georg Maaßen.

“The key question regarding the AfD is: does it have a hidden agenda?” Maaßen told the gallery, “I must assume that it is committed to the free democratic basic order. Based on all the documents I have seen, I have no credible evidence that such a hidden agenda exists.”

Maaßen added that a ban would “likely result in society becoming even more deeply divided rather than promoting social cohesion”. 

According to a 2025 poll, 54 percent of the German population are against an AfD ban, and 41 percent are in favour. These results do not account for how sentiment may have shifted in either direction since the party’s historic victory in Saxony-Anhalt in early September 2026.

How would an AfD ban work?

Even if the electorate were united on an AfD ban, how feasible would it be? While certain branches of the party do little to mask anti-constitutional views, holding them alone is not enough for a ban. 

“A party must actively seek to undermine or abolish the free democratic basic order,” according to deutschland.de. There must also be “concrete indications” that it could succeed in achieving these anti-constitutional objectives.

Given the complexity of this democratic process, the burden of proof is high, and procedures would take a long time. Only the federal government, the Bundestag or the Bundesrat could bring the case.

The Federal Republic of Germany has banned two parties in its history: the National Socialist-oriented Socialist Reich Party (SRP) in 1952 and the Stalinist Communist Party of Germany (KPD) in 1956.

The former was banned after a 10-day hearing, which concluded that the party had “systematically enlist[ed] old National Socialists to build their organisation”, that its manifesto “lacked a clear commitment to democracy”, and that it used language that echoed Nazism.

The latter was banned three years after the initial application was submitted, on the basis that it took a “hostile and militant” attitude towards democracy and aimed to create a “dictatorship of the proletariat”. 

Do you think existing evidence is compelling enough that the German government should take steps to ban the AfD? Or would a ban simply bring more polarisation? We want to know your opinion: [email protected].