Scholz opposes the ban on Germany’s right-wing alternative

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Saturday that he is currently opposed to banning Germany’s far-right party (AfD).

He said domestic intelligence services should continue to monitor the party and collect information but warned that authorities should be “very careful with the deterrence approach.”

“The worst thing would be a process where you register something that takes a few years (…) and then it can be broken at the end,” Scholz said at a conference in the city of Potsdam, near Berlin.

Under German law, parliament or the government can apply to the Constitutional Court to ban a particular party.

Earlier this month, a group of more than 100 parliamentarians from various parties in the Bundestag – Germany’s lower house – submitted a petition calling for a ban. It remains to be seen whether the measure can win a majority.

Recently, 17 legal experts wrote to the interior and legal affairs committee of the Bundestag, explaining the idea that the anti-ban approach would have a chance of success.