German Bishops’ Conference joins state harassment of AfD and urges Catholics not to vote for it
The harassment of the Alternative for Germany (AfD), the pro-sovereignty party that continues to grow in the polls, goes beyond the current government and the Public Prosecutor’s Office to reach the German Church. Specifically, the German Bishops’ Conference has issued a statement in which it criticises the AfD for being against illegal immigration, accusing the party of provoking “resentment against refugees” and speaking of “an alleged conspiracy of the so-called global elites”.
The Catholic bishops have held their Spring Plenary Assembly over the past week. At the end of the meeting, the president of the German Bishops’ Conference, Georg Bätzingse, made public the unanimously agreed resolution in which they state that “nationalism is not compatible with the Christian religion and the image of man”, and send a message “to Christians, we consider these right-wing populist parties to be unelectable”.
The document concludes that the AfD is a party that is not in favour of “the fundamental values of human coexistence”, again referring to the party’s rejection of illegal immigration. Curiously, in their note the German bishops make no reference to the fact that it is the Social Democratic Party, which is currently in government, that is already carrying out deportations. Specifically, Chancellor and Socialist leader Olaf Scholz acknowledged at the end of November last year that Germany should start “deporting illegal immigrants on a large scale”.
The legal persecution of AfD is not new, although until now the German Church has not spoken out in this way about a party that counts a large number of Christians among its voters. On 14 February Interior Minister Nancy Faeser presented an action plan in Berlin to “combat more effectively” what the government considers to be “far-right extremism”.
To monitor social media discussions that question immigration and/or LGBTI rights the AfD created this. The same law also allows for the confiscation of accounts of companies or individuals who finance the creation of this type of content critical of illegal immigration, the criminality derived from it or LGTBI lobbies, and to fine anyone who mocks the Socialist Executive on social media.
In November, the German Intelligence Agency classified Alternative for Germany as “extremist”. For legal purposes, this classification meant that it could immediately start spying on all party officials and members and their communications.
In addition, the Süddeutsche Zeitung has now reported that the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution is working on a new report on the AfD, which could include a new classification of the party as a preliminary to outlawing it. This dossier should have been ready by the end of 2023, but the fact that it has not yet been made public may be politically motivated in order to damage the party in the European elections in June 2024.
Meanwhile, the Higher Administrative Court of Münster, which has to decide on AfD’s appeal against its classification as a “right-wing extremist party” by the Intelligence Agency and has set a hearing for March, may also have delayed the report to allow more time for the requested expert evidence that could lead to the formation’s classification as a “party of assured extremist efforts”, which would lead to its outlawing.
