Söder is skeptical about the federal-state working group on the AfD ban

CSU boss Markus Söder is extremely skeptical about the call for a federal-state working group on the constitutional handling of the AfD and possible consequences. “Despite all the fundamental understanding that one would prefer this AfD not to be there, the reality is that it is hardly enforceable constitutionally,” he said, referring to a possible AfD ban procedure, 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.

NRW Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst (CDU) had previously spoken out in favor of an open-ended review of the AfD in a working group. This should not automatically lead to a ban, he told the German Press Agency.

Working group just an “expression of uncertainty”?

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.

Söder sees a ban procedure as particularly difficult even after the outcome of the election in Saxony-Anhalt: I think almost 44 percent of voters declare that “they are essentially unconstitutional is a bad signal.” The AfD received 43.8 percent of the vote in the state election.

The CSU is against cooperation with the AfD, but according to Söder, general stigmatization through a firewall will not stop. “We now simply need a clear position on what the AfD means. We will see it in Saxony-Anhalt. And we will dismantle their concepts." A ban would also make the AfD even bigger than it already is.