#rp25 speaker Bijan Moini & Thomas Laschyk: Let us now examine the AfD ban ourselves

Involvement with terrorist groups, convicted criminals in the rows of the MPs or violent supporters planning a coup – there are more and more arguments in favour of banning the AfD. Although several members of the German Bundestag are in favour, so far there has been no majority for the ban application before the German Federal Constitutional Court.

The first attempt to ban the party failed. But that is by no means the end of it. The party continues to radicalise and is constantly providing new evidence of its hostile attitude towards our free democratic basic order.

‘The threshold for a party ban is deliberately set very high in the German Fundamental Law,’ emphasises Bijan Moini, Legal Director of the Gesellschaft für Freiheitsrechte (GFF). ‘So far, there has been a lot of speculation as to whether the AfD meets this threshold. We finally need a scientifically sound and, above all, reliable basis for the public debate.’

The GFF, together with a large team of experts on right-wing extremism and lawyers, is now compiling a comprehensive and open-ended report on the question of the AfD's unconstitutionality so that the next round of the debate on a party ban can be conducted on a more sound basis. The Volksverpetzer is providing journalistic support for the work. Thanks to more than 15,000 individual donations, 800,000 euros were raised for the project within two weeks.

‘Finally check whether this is not an anti-constitutional party that must be banned under the German constitution in order to protect our democracy and freedoms. Because if it is, then it is our democratic duty to take the AfD to the German Federal Constitutional Court,’ writes Thomas Laschyk from Volksverpetzer.

At re:publica 25, Thomas Laschyk and Bijan Moini will present the project and its challenges, give an insight into the work and talk about the findings already available.

The lawyer, author and civil rights activist Bijan Moini is Legal Director of the Gesellschaft für Freiheitsrechte e.V., an honorary board member of the Stiftung Jeder Mensch e.V. and author of the books ‘Der Würfel’ (The Dice), ‘Rettet die Freiheit! Freiheit im digitalen Zeitalter’ (Save freedom! Freedom in the digital age) and ’Unser gutes Recht. Was hinter den Gesetzen steckt’ (Our right. What's behind the laws).

The literary scholar, blogger and online activist Thomas Laschyk is editor-in-chief and managing director of Volksverpetzer. His non-fiction book ‘Werbung für die Wahrheit’ (Advertising for truth) was published in early 2024.