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Posted on 08/28/2025 10:54:51 AM PDT by MtnClimber
In a potential test case for other regions, an AfD mayoral candidate was barred from the election for, among other things, quoting Tolkien and admiring Wagner.
Germany has long called itself a country that upholds democracy in a “defensive form”—a concept propagated by an establishment that claims the right to decide who and what voters should be allowed to vote for. This principle is now being wielded most aggressively in the fight against the right-populist Alternative for Germany (AfD).
This week, a court of appeals confirmed the exclusion of the AfD candidate from the upcoming mayoral election in Ludwigshafen, a western German industrial city of 122,000 residents. When citizens go to the polls on September 21, they will no longer have the option of voting for the AfD.
Instead, voters’ choices are now limited to four establishment candidates: one from the CDU, one from the SPD, one independent (though an SPD member), and one from the pro-EU group Volt—which has begun replacing the Green Party in many areas.
This exclusion of Germany’s biggest opposition party represents the most radical affront to the country’s post-war democracy yet. It serves both as test case and precedent for further bans against the populist right.
The move follows months of aggressive ‘firewall’ tactics serving the same purpose. After February’s general elections, in which the AfD came second, established parties banded together to form weak and unpopular coalitions solely to exclude the AfD from power.
But as established parties lose support so dramatically that even such tactics no longer suffice, the methods are becoming openly authoritarian. Any restraint in weaponizing the full power of the state—including secret service institutions and even the courts—has been abandoned.
How the Ban Unfolded
The exclusion began when incumbent Mayor Jutta Steinruck (formerly SPD) contacted the SPD-controlled Rhineland-Palatinate Ministry
(Excerpt) Read more at europeanconservative.com ...
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Just like leftists here tried to keep Donald Trump off the ballot in their states.
I sure hope for their sake the pendulum swings back towards freedom.
These are not free countries and we should not be in a military alliance with them.
The time has come for the US to leave NATO. The Europeans aren’t worth protecting.
Somewhere in Europe, a little corporal with a funny mustache is going to rise up and try to fix what is wrong on the continent. Millions of Europeans will cheer. We shall see how it turns out this time.
In other news...
America’s Free Constitutional Republic of the Rule of Law, and limited and representative gov’t stands opposed to Obama’s/Dem’s radical democracy of the Rule of Man, unlimited gov’t, and tyranny of populous locations like LA and SF in CA and NYC in NY.
Democracy is NOT the goal of lovers of individual freedom.
A true Constitutional Republic is the goal of lovers of individual freedom.
Either that, or something resembling a Committee of Public Safety after literal heads of state are rolling around the streets.
The rise of the Fourth Reich.
East and West Germany should never have been reunited after the fall of the USSR.
You knew this was coming. I hope the Trump administration informs the Germans that this must stop immediately and that the American people have no interest in remaining in an alliance with a country in the grips of an authoritarian establishment intent on destroying democracy by banning opposition political parties, barring opposition politicians from holding office, trampling on free speech, etc etc.
Germany: Meet the new boss. Same as that old boss.
Gosh, who else in Germany banned other political parties?
Nobody ever hoped their way to Freedom. You have to fight and defeat or kill your oppressors.
Huh, ban the opposition just like the NASDP did in the 1930’s?
This is how democracy dies. They ban the people that they don’t like.
This is why democracy is a bad form of government. It always fails due to stuff like this.
I did Nazi that coming.
These are not free countries and we should not be in a military alliance with them.
***********
And we should not be joining them in a war in the Ukraine. Germany is filled with Muslims and sexual deviants, and is no freer than Russia.
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