“Stop AfD at Any Cost”: Rule of Law Takes a Back Seat in Germany

Germany’s declining establishment parties are again undermining the very institutions they pretend to defend in order to limit the capabilities of the rising Alternative for Germany (AfD).

In Rhineland-Palatinate, in the southwest of the country, where the populist party recently secured a record election result, the CDU/CSU, SPD and Greens are teaming up to alter the constitution. They want to change the rules for parliamentary inquiry committees so as to block the AfD from convening investigative committees of their own.

The officials cited potential abuse of the power, saying their move was intended to prevent “the deliberate misuse of this oversight instrument” for “purely destructive purposes.”

But critics said it was them who were abusing the constitution for their own gain. A similar scenario earlier this year played out in Saxony-Anhalt, where the CDU, SPD, and FDP, alongside the Greens and the Left faction, worked on making it more difficult for the AfD to choose the state parliament president, reducing its influence on the membership of the state constitutional court.

Responding to the changes being made in Rhineland-Palatinate, AfD politician Stefan Scheil said it was “regrettable” that “our ruling parties won’t stop until the rule of law lies completely in ruins.”

Daniel Haseloff, who also represents the party, added that “in a truly functioning democracy, such actions against minority rights would be out of the question, and the cartel parties would be torn apart by the media for it.”

Michael Immel noted, however, that while the plans will harm the AfD in the short term, the party appears only to be becoming more popular, meaning that “what the cartel parties allow themselves will come back to haunt them yet!”

German paper Junge Freiheit reports that similar actions are taking place in other states across the country, especially where the AfD looks set to achieve absolute majorities.