Banning the AFD would make them stronger

Matt Goodwin writes:

There’s a national election. The mainstream parties do badly. They are challenged by an insurgent party that seems more in touch with the country. 

The mainstream parties then form a coalition, with no plan other than to keep themselves in power and the insurgent party out of power. 

Then, the intelligence services in that country put out a report. It says the insurgent party is “unconstitutional”, which gives intelligence services the right to tap the insurgent party’s phones and recruit informants within the party. 

Nobody is allowed to read the full report though. Oh, and the mainstream parties are already talking openly about banning the insurgent party altogether.

Which banana republic does this story take place in? Is it some tinpot dictatorship in Africa? An authoritarian regime in the Middle East? A fragile democracy in Latin America that is now sliding into the totalitarian abyss?

No. It’s taking place in Germany. It’s taking place in the very heart of Europe.

The AFD is more than an anti-immigration party. It used to be a Eurosceptic party but has morphed into a party that is revisionist around the Nazis, is pro-Russia and has policies such as banning the importation of kosher meat. reinstating military conscription.

But that does not mean the state should be able to tap their phones and spy on them, let alone ban them from standing for election. In fact the more they are targeted, the better they will do in the polls.

And as it happens they are now leading in some polls.