The AfD immediately took issue with President Steinmeier’s comments concerning the banning of a political party. Bernd Baumann, the AfD parliamentary group’s chief whip, reacted strongly to the president’s remarks, writing:

“Never has a Federal President abused his office so much. He calls for ban proceedings against the AfD, and he wants to prevent any cooperation in any parliament. He places the AfD at the same level as Nazi murderers. Because of such demonization, the Antifa burned the fifth car in front of my house – in just one year, with a call for murder against me.”

Notably, Baumann was targeted just last week in an arson attack outside his house, which led to five cars being burned, including both his and his wife’s cars. He has been the repeated victim of Antifa violence over the last year.

Baumann’s criticism stemmed from a speech given by Steinmeier to commemorate Nov. 9, focusing significantly on the 1938 pogrom against Jews.

Baumann claimed that by stating “We must act,” Steinmeier was directly advocating for a ban on the AfD. Furthermore, Baumann accused the president of trying to preclude any parliamentary collaboration with the AfD—a party which, based on current polls, is the strongest political force in the country.

Steinmeier did not mention the AfD in his speech, but political analysts across the spectrum of opinion wrote that the speech was clearly aimed at the AfD. Steinmeier said: “There must be no political cooperation with extremists. Not in government, not in parliament. If this excludes a portion of the democratically elected parliament from shaping policy, then that exclusion is self-imposed.”

Baumann also told Handelsblatt newspaper that Steinmeier had used the Nov. 9 anniversary to place the AfD “in the same category as the Nazi murderers.”

However, it is not only the AfD condemning Steinmeier, who did not directly reference the AfD but obviously alluded to the party in his speech.

As the top story on the influential Welt newspaper website, Fatina Keilani also slammed Steinmeier, casting his calls for a ban as anti-democratic.

“The Federal President wants to defend democracy – and declares war on the AfD without naming it. In doing so, he fails to recognize that a good democrat should defend dissenting opinions, not fight them.

“Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier has never given a speech that was truly memorable. On Sunday, however, he delivered a speech that was so disturbingly misguided in places that it sent chills down one’s spine.

“For Steinmeier, there are right and wrong opinions, there are the good guys and the bad guys. When he says ‘militant democracy,’ it sounds like a democracy of thought control. He even invokes the framers of the Basic Law – yet, in their spirit, he should be advocating for precisely the opposite. Freedom is defended even at the extremes! This includes the Left Party and the AfD, as long as they aren’t banned.

“Ah yes, party bans. He claims this is a last resort, but if it has to be done, it has to be done, Steinmeier says.

‘We mustn’t slide first into a new fascination with authoritarianism and then into a new lack of freedom,’ only to then advocate for precisely that.”

During his address, Steinmeier advocated for a significantly “tougher legal and political fight against right-wing extremism.”

He specifically called on center-right parties to maintain a “firewall” to block cooperation with extremist forces. However, he also included a qualification, recognizing that center-left factions have a duty “not to complicate every debate with accusations of right-wing extremism and racism.”

On the issue of party proscription, Steinmeier argued that banning a political party was “no more undemocratic than excluding enemies of the constitution from running for district administrator or mayor.” He emphasized a clear legal principle: Anyone who pursues an alternative, non-liberal political system and actively pursues “aggressive hostility towards the constitution must always reckon with the possibility of being banned.”

While Steinmeier did not explicitly name the AfD — which German domestic intelligence classifies as a suspected right-wing extremist organization — he made clear that any final decision regarding a party ban rests solely with the Constitutional Court.