Merz ally calls for study into banning far-right AfD

Hendrick Wüst, the premier of North Rhine-Westphalia and a regional leader of Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s Christian Democratic Union, wants Germany to examine whether the far-right Alternative for Germany can be banned.

Wüst called for the creation of a working group to study the possibility of opening prohibition proceedings against the AfD. If the group concludes that such a case could be launched, he said it should move forward. “But we have to proceed step by step. The result of the work may be different,” Wüst said in comments cited by Die Welt.

The proposal follows the AfD’s victory in regional elections in Saxony-Anhalt, where the party is close to forming a state government for the first time in its history. Wüst governs Germany’s most populous state in coalition with the Greens.

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But we have to proceed step by step. The result of the work may be different.

He also rejected suggestions in some media that Merz could leave the chancellorship and be replaced by Wüst to confront the far-right threat. “That is what the AfD wants to lead us toward, disputes among ourselves,” he said.

Before the 2025 federal election, Wüst became the first senior CDU figure to publicly back Merz’s candidacy for chancellor, setting aside his own reported ambitions and indirectly opposing a possible candidacy by Markus Söder, the Bavarian premier and leader of the Christian Social Union. The CDU and CSU operate as sister parties, share a parliamentary group and run with a joint candidate in federal elections.

German intelligence authorities classified the AfD in 2025 as a “confirmed far-right extremist case,” allowing increased surveillance. The party appealed and obtained an interim injunction while the underlying court case continues. AfD organizations in several states, including Saxony-Anhalt, have already been classified as “confirmed far-right extremist.”

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That is what the AfD wants to lead us toward, disputes among ourselves.