Ger­man democ­racy is under threat

The Finns Par­ty Youth is alar­med about the recent deve­lop­ments in Ger­ma­ny whe­re govern­ment poli­ticians are con­si­de­ring ban­ning the Alter­na­ti­ve for Ger­ma­ny (AfD), cur­rent­ly top pol­ling poli­tical par­ty in Ger­ma­ny, after the par­ty was clas­si­fied as “right-wing ext­re­mist” by the Ger­man domes­tic intel­li­gence agency due to AfD’s cri­ticism regar­ding migra­tion and Islam.

“The social democ­rat soon-to-be finance minis­ter alrea­dy decla­red that the AfD is attac­king Ger­ma­ny and its democ­racy even though it’s the gover­ning poli­tical par­ties that are aiming to ban the lar­gest oppo­si­tion par­ty. What is alrea­dy nor­mal in Istan­bul and Moscow might soon be the new nor­mal in Ber­lin as well”, sta­tes Lau­ri Lai­ti­nen, chair­man of the Finns Par­ty Youth.

The youth wing sees that ban­ning the AfD would be a serious attack against repre­sen­ta­ti­ve, Wes­tern democ­racy. Furt­her­mo­re it would be a wor­rying sig­nal to the rest of Euro­pe that it’s per­fect­ly accep­table to silence oppo­si­tion out­si­de of the old par­ties’ con­sen­sus car­tel with met­hods bor­rowed from dic­ta­tors­hips.

“It stri­kes me as Orwel­lian to claim to defend democ­racy whi­le acti­ve­ly pur­suing to ban the lar­gest oppo­si­tion par­ty at the same time. There’s no point in mora­li­sing other sta­tes on their lack of democ­racy if one is wil­ling to dis­miss the will of the mas­ses”, notes Elias Rosengrén, mem­ber of the board.