Germany will hold its next general election in 2025, but already its politicians, from the president on down, are scrambling over what to do about the rising right-wing party known as Alternative for Germany.

The traditional parties are condemning the AfD, which opposes high levels of immigration and Green energy policies, as a threat to democracy. Critics point to past controversial comments by some party figures and the perception that AfD’s views are “extremist.”

An AfD official, in comments to the Sun, avers that it is committed to German democracy and warns that attempts to ban it could spark “upheavals.” President Steinmeier of the German Republic last week rebuffed the AfD, saying, “We all have it in our hands to put those who despise our democracy in their place.”

While German law tolerates controversial positions, Herr Steinmeier added, it “cannot integrate enemies of the constitution — and we must not ignore the danger they pose.” As president, Mr. Steinmeier is ostensibly apolitical, though he is a member of the leftist Social Democratic Party.

So while he did not specifically mention the Alternative for Germany party, known as the AfD, local press say it was clear he was referring to it. The AfD is currently running second in German popularity polls, with 21 percent of the votes, behind a conservative alliance, the Christian Democratic Union and Christian Social Union, which are polling at 26 percent.

The AfD has already surpassed Chancellor Scholz’s Social Democratic Party, which, with 18 percent, is in third place as it  heads into next summer’s European Parliament elections.

One non-governmental organization, the German Institute for Human Rights, describes the AfD as a “racist and Right-wing extremist” party, though the institute does not call for an outright ban. The author of a study addressing the possible ban, Hendrik Cremer, tells the Sun that the AfD, “for racist reasons,” does not “recognize all Germans as such.”

“Those whom it does not recognize as German citizens,” Mr. Cremer adds, “do not have basic and human rights in its view.” The institute says it  “wants to raise awareness of the danger posed by this party.”

The AfD takes great umbrage at these kinds of charges. “In reality,” a party official, Andreas Mayer, tells the Sun, “the AfD is the party that fights most strongly for our free democratic basic order in Germany, our democracy and our constitution.” 

Mr. Mayer notes that the party’s call for “referendums at the federal level” is evidence of its commitment to democracy, in contrast to “governments at the federal, EU and state levels — consisting of all other parties in Germany.” He warns against excluding the AfD, saying: “I fear that if more than twenty percent of voters are no longer represented in the parliamentary system, this could lead to ugly social upheavals.” 

In June, Mr. Mayer will be running as a candidate of the AfD for the European parliament. He is also running for the Bavarian State Parliament to represent the regions of Allgäu and Schwaben.

The AfD’s co-chairwoman, Alice Weidel, has lamented that Germany’s other political parties refuse to work with the AfD, limiting its political influence, and appears to be aware of the irony of an effort to preserve German democracy by shunning a political party with growing popular support. 

“How undemocratic is it to simply exclude millions of voters who vote for us?” Ms. Weidel asked. She described the AfD as “the party of freedom and entrepreneurship” and “the party of taxpayers in this country.”

Ms. Weidel has herself, though, ruled out working with Germany’s Green party, explaining that “the only thing we need is a bulwark against the Green ship of fools that is running this country into the ground,” she said.

The AfD, according to its manifesto, seeks to restrict asylum claims and the free movement of people inside the European Union. It claims that the “concept of multi-cultural society has failed” and calls for immigrants to assimilate into German culture, language, and law. Additionally, the party calls for scrapping the German Renewable Energy Act and getting rid of the euro as a common currency.

The party has also long been calling for Germany to shift its focus away from historical guilt about the Holocaust and other crimes of the Nazi era. The AfD, which has Jewish members and candidates for office, says it rejects antisemitism. Yet the party seeks a “balanced view of history” and for children to spend less time learning about the Nazis in school and more time focusing on Germany’s achievements.   

“To a political establishment for which Holocaust remembrance is an integral part of public life,” the Wall Street Journal reported as far back as 2017, “the AfD’s break with the consensus is a shocking turn.”

“Ban enemies of the constitution” was the headline of an editorial last week in the left-of-center German news magazine Der Spiegel. “It’s time to defend democracy with sharper weapons,” according to the editorial.   

The youth group of the AfD, whose members are as young as 14, was labeled “extremist” in April by Germany’s domestic intelligence agency. The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution claims Young Alternative for Germany is “clearly xenophobic” and is “propagating a racial concept of a society based on basic biological assumptions.” 

A co-leader of the Social Democratic Party, Saskia Esken, alleged in an interview that the AfD has “anti-constitutional goals” and that, if that can be proven, it should be banned. A Christian Democratic Union member of Germany’s parliament, Marco Wanderwitz, is also proposing a ban on the party. In a letter to the members of the Union parliamentary group in the Bundestag, Mr. Wanderwitz said the party “acts aggressively and combatively against the free democratic basic order.”

The leader of the Christian Democratic Union, Friedrich Merz, does not agree with his fellow officials. “Banning parties has never actually solved political problems,” Mr. Merz said in an interview last month.

Under the German constitution, enacted a few years after the Nazi regime’s defeat in World War II, parties that “seek to undermine or abolish the free democratic basic order” or endanger the country “must be declared unconstitutional.” To date, the Federal Constitutional Court has banned two parties under this clause — a neo-Nazi group in 1952 and a Communist party in 1956.

A professor at the University of Oldenburg, Volker Boehme-Nessler, tells the Sun that he doesn’t think the AfD “meets the constitutional requirements for a party ban.” Only a part of the AfD party is anti-constitutional and rejects the free democratic basic order, not the entire party, he suggests. Most party members, he adds, are conservative and right-wing but not extremists. 

In addition, it would be a “democratic disaster” to ban the AfD, which is rising in the polls, Mr. Boehme-Nessler says, and would lead to a “massive loss of confidence in the democratic system.” 

The idea of banning a political party is “profoundly undemocratic,” German historian Katja Hoyer wrote in an opinion piece for the Spectator. Banning a party would be ineffective, she says, as most of the people that voted for the AfD “are unhappy with the status quo” and lost trust in the traditional parties and public institutions.

“Germany must resist the urge to reach for the political crutches that helped it make its first steps towards democracy after fascism and war,” Ms. Hoyer writes. “Seventy-five years have passed since then. It’s time for German democracy to confront its problems rather than silence their expression.”

The AfD was launched in 2013 by a group of Euroskeptic intellectuals. It gained prominence in 2016 for its harsh stance on migration following Chancellor Merkel’s acceptance of hundreds of thousands of refugees from war-torn Syria. 

The party’s co-chairman, Frauke Petry, said in 2016 that police should “use firearms if necessary” to “prevent illegal border crossings.” In 2017, the deputy leader of the party, Beatrix von Storch, said that Islam did not deserve to claim political power in the country as it “does not belong to Germany.” In 2018, she was banned from Twitter after she questioned the decision of the police to put out a message in Arabic regarding New Year’s Eve festivities. 

“What the hell is wrong with this country? Why is the official page of police in NRW tweeting in Arabic,” Ms. von Storch had tweeted. “Are they seeking to appease the barbaric, Muslim, rapist hordes of men?”

In 2017, the head of the AfD in the state of Thuringia called Berlin’s Holocaust memorial a “monument of shame.” An AfD spokesman, Christian Lueth, was fired in 2020 after saying migrants could be shot dead, “or we could gas them, whatever you want.” 

Yet in May, members of the AfD visited the Holocaust Remembrance Center in Jerusalem as part of what appears to be an effort by its members to change the perception of the party.

“We were given a guided tour in perfect German by a young Israeli researcher. Glad to see how human and cultural bonds between Jews and Germans are being reestablished after the monstrous Nazi crimes. Sad to see prejudices on AfD,” lawmaker Marc Jongen tweeted.

The party called the European Union a “failed project” this month ahead of the European Parliament elections next June. During the convention held at the eastern city of Magdeburg to choose its candidates for the European elections, the party said the bloc has “completely failed” in areas such as migration, climate policies, and using the euro as a currency.