The German Office for the Protection of the Constitution’s (BfV) decision to designate the right-wing AfD party as “definitely right-wing extremist” has caused a flurry of demands for action by representatives of the German Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party.
Roderich Kiesewetter, a CDU MP and deputy chairman of the German parliamentary control panel that supervises the BfV and other agencies, said: “The qualification of the party [as extremist] can and should have consequences for public servants as AfD membership is incompatible with public service.”
Kiesewetter demanded “individual audits” for AfD-leaning public servants.
“AfD reformulates important topics in an extremist way in order to destroy trust in our democracy and our institutions”, Kiesewetter said in an interview with state broadcaster ARD on May 5.
“It is about human dignity, not about German dignity”, Kiesewetter continued.
“If someone is openly right-wing extremist or questions our institutions then they should not have access to confidential documents. And that means that in individual cases we must certainly choose tough measures”.
Fellow CDU MP Marco Wanderwitz voiced similar comments and also demanded restricting AfD members’ access to firearms.
“Members of a right-wing extremist party should neither be allowed to work in public service nor to have a gun licence”, Wanderwitz said.
“I expect a wave of resignations from the party [AfD] as public servants will have to ask themselves whether their membership endangers their career,”, he added.
Wanderwitz also renewed his previous demands for a complete ban on AfD.
The State governments of Bavaria and Hesse – both coalition governments with the CDU as the senior partner – have announced plans to audit AfD members within their public administrations.
Hessian interior minister Roman Poseck (CDU) told newspaper Bild the State was reviewing what consequences the constitution watchdogs qualification would have for AfD members in public service.
“Our employees in police and administration have to guarantee that they will always work in favour of the democratic basic order”, Poseck said. The Bavarian interior minister Joachim Herrmann from the CDU’s Bavarian sister party the Christian Social Union (CSU) voiced similar plans.
Other politicians have demanded a freezing of AfD’s funding. “We should carefully consider an application to withdraw party funding,” said Sebastian Lechner, leader of CDU in Lower Saxony.
“I find it intolerable to finance right-wing extremist and anti-constitutional propaganda with taxpayers’ money,” he added.
