Workshop in Düsseldorf on the alternatives and dangers of an AfD ban | EUROtoday

Dhe University House is positioned on Schadowplatz in Düsseldorf on the finish of Königsallee, a neo-baroque former financial institution constructing close to the Hofgarten. Since 2013, Heinrich Heine University, whose campus is way additional south in Bilk, has had the chance to current itself within the metropolis heart in one of the best environment. Between upscale retailers and motels, the Federal Republic's present issues appear very far-off. The lecture corridor is full to the final seat for a “workshop”. The subject is “party bans as an instrument of defensive democracy”. The Düsseldorf constitutional lawyer Sophie Schönberger, director of the Institute for German and International Party Law and Party Research, spoke of “concern for democracy” and “a party” that she doesn’t explicitly identify. Everyone within the room is aware of that the Alternative for Germany (AfD) is supposed.

Physically, the defensive nature of democracy is mirrored within the presence of bodyguards, which is uncommon at college occasions, for the primary speaker, the Berlin Senator for Justice Felor Badenberg, who explains the idea of defensive democracy just about the lawyer Karl Löwenstein and the sociologist Karl Mannheim. The sober lawyer, Vice President of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution till 2023 and likewise liable for classifying the AfD as a “suspected case,” turns into emotional when she refers to her expertise as a “woman with migration experience” and describes herself as “disgusted” by an announcement by the Thuringian AfD chief Björn Höcke about inclusion and faculties. However, she stays cautious about doable ban proceedings.