German politicians using authoritarian means

Erik Strand, 04.10.2025.

One of the issues Thomas Fazi discusses in his commentary Germany’s bizarre selective outrage: legitimising extremists abroad while delegitimising democracy at home is authoritarian means against a German political party, Alternativ für Deutschland (AfD). Fazi’s commentary may serve as a reference when one considers a couple of examples of actions by German politicians.

First, we have the means taken by the German State Rheinland-Palatinate, where AfD members are now banned from entering civil service. State interior minister Michael Elbing (Social Democratic Party of Germany, SPD) has been in charge of imposing this policy.

Second, we have the recent election in the city of Ludwigshaven, where the AfD candidate was excluded from the election over alleged ‘lack of consttutional loyalty’. The voters do not seem to have been in favor of the exclusion, as the voter turnout plummeted to 29%.

The decisioon to ban the AfD candidate was made by the election committee of Ludwigshaven’s city council og 05.08.2025. The election committee comprised seven members, one of them mayor Jutta Steinbeck – and six other members.