this post was submitted on 03 Apr 2025
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Germany’s centre-Right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party and the centre-Left Social Democrats (SPD), which are holding coalition talks, have proposed a law that will block people with multiple extremism convictions from standing in elections.

https://archive.ph/yNQwE

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[–] Pippipartner@discuss.tchncs.de 26 points 1 day ago (3 children)

That's astonishing bullshit. There is already a process for ban political parties with political alignments incompatible with the constitution, which has to be initialized by o e of the two chambers of parliament and decided by the constitutional court. Having a political instrument in addition to that will automatically reduce the hurdle of dismantling political movements, for blurry definitions of "sufficient amount of extremists in a party".

[–] Saleh@feddit.org 3 points 1 day ago

It can also be initiated by the federal government. Something that both the past and the likely upcoming government have rejected, because they are happy with the Fascists from the AfD moving the country to the far-right, so they can get their own right wing positions in better.

In that sense the article calling the current SPD center-left is already out of touch with the current time. In many positions the current SPD is right to where the CDU was under Merkel. The CDU and their Bavarian partner CSU have embraced a heavy far right populist position, with the CSU befriending Trumps republicans, Orban and other far right/authoritarian leaders. The CDU ran on a platform of racism and dismantling human rights. The SPD has a hard on for authoritarianism and wants to dismantle many civil rights, such as privacy, protection of the flat, freedom of sciences and arts, freedom of opinion, right to asylum...

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[–] Kyrgizion@lemmy.world 11 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

On the topic of cordon sanitaire (the practice of never forming a coalition with far-right parties, no matter how well they perform in elections):

Me pre-2016: "Isn't that kinda counter to democracy?"

Me in 2025: "Outlaw and deport the fuckers, please!"

[–] superkret@feddit.org 9 points 1 day ago (1 children)

As much as I'm a fan of keeping Nazis out of government, holy fuck is this a bad idea!
A judge shouldn't be able to ban anyone from running for office.
This is what Russia does. Ban you from running if you're convicted of "extremism", then define that to include opposing the government.

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[–] Luffy879@lemmy.ml 9 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Calling the SPD anything but a luke warm pudding is a lie.

They are literally neither right noir left. They just bend to whatever coqlition they get into.

[–] rumschlumpel@feddit.org 10 points 1 day ago

They are staunch defenders of rightwing policy when they are in coalitions with parties that are more leftwing than they are. See: Gerhard Schröder's Agenda 2010.

[–] Melchior@feddit.org 3 points 1 day ago

Nope. The SPD defending the AFD. Faeser stops the publication of a report, which would label the whole AFD as a party fighting the constitution. They actively work sending refugees to countries like Afghanistan, help to criminalize climate and Palestine activists and so forth.

The only left leaning thing they actively fought for in the last term in government was raising the minimum wage a bit. Everything else which was decent left leaning policy was brought through mainly by the Greens. Sometimes even the FDP had to rightly fight the insane policies of the SPD.

[–] benjhm@sopuli.xyz 7 points 1 day ago

Diverse views here, even within our lemmy 'bubble', suggest it's not obvious what to do about this (and similar situation in France and other european countries). Banning either individuals or parties can set a risky precedent and does not necessarily diminish a movement. I'd rather go for gradually (but rapidly) changing norms about acceptable campaigning, propaganda, use of social media, 'fake' news (lies). That includes faster-acting legal restrictions on funding, ownership, facts/fakes, algorithms, etc.. , as well as positively strengthening alternatives like our fediverse.

[–] 30p87@feddit.org 6 points 1 day ago

Would basically get rid of 50-60% of voted parties. At least 25%.

[–] Venus_Ziegenfalle@feddit.org 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)
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[–] twinnie@feddit.uk 4 points 1 day ago (6 children)

While the idea sounds good I don’t think anyone should be setting a precedent to say it’s okay for elected governments to ban opposition parties from running based on their political views. Ultimately the people should hold the power.

Because that hasn't caused us any problems up to now has it? Maybe we should be setting a minimum standard for a political office, and maybe that minimum standard should include not being committed of certain crimes as is being proposed here 🤷‍♀️

[–] Pippipartner@discuss.tchncs.de 17 points 1 day ago (6 children)

Nah, that's the paradox of tolerance. A democracy cannot allow fascists to run without dismantling itself. Also fascism and other "political views" that dehumanize are not a political view, they are chargeable criminal offenses in many countries.

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[–] FourGreenFields@feddit.org 10 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Wehrhafte Demokratie macht BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

There allready is precedent for banning parties. History and current events both show that people are fully ready to vote fascists into power. And also, you know what's one of the big reasons so many people vote for fascists? Fascist propaganda. Banning fascist parties will help have fewer fascist citizens around (at least after a while).

People are easily manipulated. There needs to be some guardrails.

[–] Lumidaub@feddit.org 2 points 1 day ago

It's not based on their views but after multiple convictions for extremist activities. That sounds reasonable (on paper) to me for now. Not that I won't be surprised if anything useful comes of this.

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[–] NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io 1 points 1 day ago

European defensive democracy stuff sounds good to our left-to-center-left ears, but frankly I doubt it'll be much use. Without good economic policy fascism is inevitable. This will likely do more harm to the left than it will to the right.

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