If You Can’t Beat Them, Ban Them: The German Establishment’s Attack on Democracy

The European Conservative ^ | 8/28/25 | Sabine Beppler-Spahl

[EnderWiggin1970]

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.

[EnderWiggin1970]

The United States still faces an uphill battle to restore representative government across the land. In Europe the dictatorships there are preventing any attempt to do so through political means. The dictatorships are now so extreme that Tolkien is cited as an extremist by them, such that anyone admiring LotR is to be considered persona non grata by the elites and to be fenced from any position of power or influence.

[ClearCase_guy]

"Sons of Gondor! Of Rohan! My brothers. I see in your eyes the same fear that would take the heart of me. A day may come when the courage of Men fails, when we forsake our friends and break all bonds of fellowship, but it is not this day. An hour of wolves and shattered shields when the Age of Men comes crashing down, but it is not this day! This day we fight! By all that you hold dear on this good earth, I bid you stand, Men of the West!"

... oh, that's just hate speech. We can't have that.

[rktman]

Well zat soundz fair yah?

[AlaskaErik]

We need to pull out of NATO, remove all our troops and wash our hands of Europe, which is heading down the same totalitarian road as Germany did in the 1930s.

[jimwatx]

Germany is a totally screwed up country these days. They should have kicked out the US years ago and regained their sovereignty. Certainly after our complicity in taking out Nordstream 2.

[Leaning Right]

I expect the German Deep State to eventually ban the AfD completely.

And it would be so easy. Infiltrate a few agents into an AfD rally. Have them give the Hitler salute.

Then, poof! No more AfD.

Then what would the average German voter do, complain to the EU bureaucrats in Brussels? The complaint alone might get you arrested.

Do I have a solution? A nationalist military coup comes to mind. But it’s more likely a flying saucer from Mars will land in Berlin first.

🛸

[kiryandil]

“Euro-peein’ Democracy”

[kiryandil]

I did Nazi this coming from the Euro-peein’s...

[EnderWiggin1970]

So long as these bans are ongoing, voters should refuse to participate in the farce that provides the rules with the illusion of a functioning republic.

Instead, stand outside the polling areas making a show of taking photos of every person going to vote, with placards denouncing the farce and calling on citizens to refuse to participate in sham elections until the bans are rescinded.

Banned political organizations should also look into infiltrating and getting leaders elected in "mainstream" parties to remold them and influence them from within. At this point for example the AfD could swamp and overwhelm the CDU for example. And if the German elites banned the CDU, they could just move on to a smaller leftwing party and do the same to it, rinse and repeat.

[nonliberal]

Germany is again so paralyzed by their history that they refuse to save their country.

[Gritty]

It is painful to see so much of Europe heading off Suicide Cliff. Hopefully, we’ll continue our turn in the opposite direction.

[Tacrolimus1mg]

Indeed.

They are a little too close to see that they are heading back to a highly discriminatory and hateful government - just not in the way they think.