Vote on AfD party conference (archive) dts
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Berlin (German news agency) – The President of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), Thomas Haldenwang, warns against anti-constitutional efforts in the AfD. “We see a significant number of protagonists in this party who keep spreading hate and hate speech against minorities of all kinds here in Germany,” Haldenwang told ARD’s daily topics on Monday. “It’s against people with a migration background, it’s against Muslims, it’s against people with a different gender orientation or different sexuality. There are also currents of anti-Semitism. We perceive all of this within the AfD to an extent that through this hate and through this agitation the human dignity of these groups of people is violated.”
And if this criterion is met, “then we are dealing with anti-constitutional efforts.” You can see this “quite increasingly in the AfD”.
When asked whether it was a mistake to talk about the AfD during the party meeting, Haldenwang said: “No, absolutely not. I’m following our legal mandate. We are obliged by the Federal Constitutional Protection Act to report on extremist efforts and we have complied with that obligation.” Haldenwang rejected the accusation from the AfD that he was not neutral.
“Of course I am neutral towards all political movements and parties, but neutrality ends where we are dealing with anti-constitutional movements.” The protection of the constitution had to take action. It is correct to inform when there are events that show that “an extremist effort, an effort directed against the free democratic basic order, is active here. We did that at that point in time.” Against the background of German history, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, as an “important instrument” of a well-fortified democracy, “not only has the right, but also the duty, to inform about anti-constitutional efforts,” said Haldenwang. There is currently a development in Germany in which “we are finding that extremist forces are definitely gaining ground”. So you can see “increasing poll numbers for parties on the extreme right”. This, too, is “certainly a reason to report more about anti-constitutional efforts within such parties, so that citizens who may not be able to obtain detailed information can also receive information about these aspects.”
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