After Saxony-Anhalt election, Wüst calls for federal-state group to examine AfD

North Rhine-Westphalia Premier Hendrik Wüst has called for a federal-state working group to examine how Germany should respond constitutionally to the AfD after the election in Saxony-Anhalt.

Wüst told the German Press Agency that the review should remain open-ended and must not automatically lead to a party-ban procedure. "I warn against rushing into an AfD ban, because banning a political party can only be the last resort if we want to protect our constitution," he said.

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I warn against rushing into an AfD ban, because banning a political party can only be the last resort if we want to protect our constitution.

He proposed involving Germany's domestic intelligence service, constitutional law experts and other specialists from the federal and state governments. The group, he said, should carefully and professionally examine how the state can deal with a party that pursues anti-constitutional goals in at least some states.

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I said something today that, I believe, no CDU member has said publicly before: that I support setting up this working group to do this work.

Wüst said he had raised the idea publicly at a discussion in Berlin the previous evening. "I said something today that, I believe, no CDU member has said publicly before: that I support setting up this working group to do this work," he was quoted as saying.

He later warned against assuming that the AfD would discredit itself in government. An AfD administration in Saxony-Anhalt, he said, could control important appointments in state police and courts. "The core of the state's monopoly on the use of force lies in the states," Wüst said. The AfD is monitored nationwide by the domestic intelligence service as a suspected extremist case, while several state branches, including Saxony-Anhalt's, have been classified by state authorities as confirmed far-right extremist.

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The core of the state's monopoly on the use of force lies in the states.