Düsseldorf/Berlin. North Rhine-Westphalia Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst is calling for a federal-state working group on the constitutional handling of the AfD and possible consequences. This review must be open-ended and should not automatically lead to a ban, the CDU politician told the German Press Agency. CSU boss Markus Söder reacted skeptically, but the Greens agreed. AfD co-chairwoman Alice Weidel sees the initiative as an “attempt to distract from the failure of the Union”.
Wüst said: “I warn against taking quick measures to ban the AfD, because banning a political party can only be the last resort if we want to protect our constitution.” He explained: “There must now be a structure in which these questions are examined carefully, professionally and seriously by the federal and state governments.”
From the point of view of the NRW head of government, the working group should include the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, but also constitutional lawyers and other experts from the federal and state governments. “The overall question is how the state deals constitutionally with a party that pursues anti-constitutional goals, at least in individual federal states,” said the CDU politician.
AfD leader Weidel sharply criticized Wüst. The move shows “the full extent of the CDU’s desperation after the historic election defeat in Saxony-Anhalt,” she told the news portal “The Pioneer”. The fact that Wüst wanted to “start a new ban debate” immediately after the AfD’s election victory was “a desperate attempt to distract from the failure of the Union”. The CDU and Chancellor Friedrich Merz no longer have the strength to change policy, said Weidel. “Hendrik Wüst knows that, of course.” She looks forward to the debate with great calm.
CSU leader Markus Söder reacted skeptically to Wüst's initiative: "Despite all the fundamental understanding that one would prefer this AfD not to be there, the reality is that it is hardly constitutionally enforceable," he said after a cabinet meeting in Munich. In addition to a year-long process, there is a risk that the AfD will acquire a new martyr status. The AfD must be given content.
The CSU will not fundamentally close itself to discussions in a federal-state group, “but that is nothing other than an expression of uncertainty,” emphasized Söder. “In a democracy you have to work with democratic means and the democratic way means preparing for the next elections differently than in Saxony-Anhalt and finding clearer arguments.” The CSU does not believe that a ban procedure would work.
On Monday evening, according to reports from “Politico” and “Welt”, Wüst brought up the idea of a working group at a talk event with economist Maja Göpel in Berlin. “I said something today that I don’t think any CDU person has said publicly before: that I am in favor of setting up this working group that will then do this work,” Wüst was quoted as saying.
Wüst also spoke on stage at Deutsche Telekom's “Digital X” digital trade fair on Tuesday morning about the AfD and the consequences of the Saxony-Anhalt election. He warned against the idea that the AfD could disenchant itself. Rather, an AfD government in Saxony-Anhalt would have important control levers: "Every week in state cabinets in Germany, the leadership of the police and the leadership of the courts are appointed. The core of this state's monopoly on violence lies in the states."
The AfD is being monitored nationwide by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution as a suspected case. Individual state associations – including Saxony-Anhalt – are classified as definitely right-wing extremist by the respective state Office for the Protection of the Constitution. Only the Bundestag, the Bundesrat or the Federal Government can submit an application for a party ban to the Federal Constitutional Court. The decision then lies with the Federal Constitutional Court.
There hasn't been such an initiative from the ranks of the CDU for a long time. In 2024, the then CDU MP Marco Wanderwitz suggested in the Bundestag that the Bundestag should apply to the Federal Constitutional Court to declare the AfD unconstitutional. Due to the early elections, the motion, which probably would not have achieved the necessary majority, was not ultimately voted on in the Bundestag.
In the past, Schleswig-Holstein's Prime Minister, Daniel Günther (CDU), had also shown himself open to considering a ban. However, there has recently been a particularly high level of skepticism from the ranks of the CSU, including from Federal Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt.
The North Rhine-Westphalian SPD parliamentary group leader Jochen Ott was critical of Wüst's initiative. Only recently did the SPD make Wüst an offer to jointly launch an initiative from North Rhine-Westphalia to ban the AfD through the Federal Council. “We can do that next week,” said Ott in Düsseldorf. “I don’t know, how many more working groups should we set up?” Numerous lawyers have already dealt with the question.
From his point of view, Wüst's initiative was more of a tactical nature, said the SPD's top candidate for the state elections in April. After young people asked Wüst en masse on social media what he wanted to do against the AfD, Wüst apparently “tried to make another point from the balcony again.”
However, Wüst's initiative was met with approval from the Greens. “I very much welcome the fact that there is now a noticeable movement towards a test procedure in the Union,” said Green Party leader Felix Banaszak to the “Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger”. A review procedure before the Federal Constitutional Court is the right instrument to demonstrate the resilience of democracy. He believes it is wrong that this federal government has not yet been prepared to take this step.
The federal-state working group on the AfD set up by the Conference of Interior Ministers in June 2025 does not aim to examine a ban procedure. Rather, it is about security checks, consequences for the public service and the reliability of AfD members under gun law.
In principle, the interior ministers have agreed to wait for the final decision of the Cologne Administrative Court on the classification of the party as a confirmed right-wing extremist movement. In the expedited procedure, the court did not confirm this classification; which is why the AfD is currently still being processed as a suspected case by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution.
