OPINION:
The Continent continues to reject the fundamental principles of a free society. In Germany, the ruling faction on Friday gave itself the authority to treat members of the opposition party, the Alternative for Germany (AfD), like criminals.
Berlin’s power brokers grew alarmed as the AfD became serious political rivals, topping several polls. The public appreciates the AfD’s clear stance against policies that have eroded the language, history and culture of Germany and other European nations through an unchecked flood of immigrants who don’t share Western values. The AfD’s preference for its country to be run by Germans, rather than bureaucrats in Brussels, also enjoys increasing approval.
Over the past several years, agents of the domestic intelligence agency known as the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) conducted an investigation based on information found in a dossier to conclude that the AfD is an “extremist entity that threatens democracy.” The ruling party will send snitches to infiltrate the AfD and snoop on its activities.
“This decision is the result of a thorough and independent investigation to protect our Constitution and the rule of law,” Germany’s foreign office said in a statement. “It is independent courts that will have the final say. We have learnt from our history that rightwing extremism needs to be stopped.”
The plot of this dime-store political thriller ought to sound awfully familiar to Americans. Democratic operatives employed the same techniques against Donald Trump and his supporters beginning in 2016. Having been on the receiving end of a malicious, spy-agency-led coup attempt, Republican leaders take a dim view of developments across the Atlantic.
“The West tore down the Berlin Wall together. And it has been rebuilt — not by the Soviets or the Russians, but by the German establishment,” Vice President J.D. Vance observed on X.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio shared the vice president’s concern: “What is truly extremist is not the popular AfD, which took second in the recent election, but rather the establishment’s deadly open border immigration policies that the AfD opposes. Germany should reverse course.”
That establishment knows better. When Bangkok banned the left-wing Move Forward Party last year, Germany’s foreign office delivered a stern condemnation: “Today’s ban on the largest opposition party MFP Thailand is a severe setback for democracy. It is important that Thailand remains committed to pluralism and that all democratic parties can freely exercise their electoral mandate.”
It issued similar denunciations about events in Hong Kong, Russia, Turkey and Venezuela. In retrospect, these proclamations ring hollow now that pluralism is dead in Germany. The Foreign Office never said a word when France knocked Marine Le Pen, the leading opposition party candidate for 2027, off the ballot.
In countries that ought to know better, the forces that benefit from the status quo rally to prevent anyone who threatens change from assuming power. It starts with using media allies to apply a derogatory “far right” label on the challengers, even though the corresponding “far left” designation is never applied to socialists and Marxists.
Another trick is to brand as a tool of Vladimir Putin anyone questioning the value of shipping billions of dollars to Ukraine to perpetuate a bloody stalemate. When mere words fail to inhibit a disfavored candidate’s ascent, politicians will reveal their inner totalitarian.
That’s when the White House needs to step in. It should apply diplomatic and economic pressure to encourage nations that are supposed to be our allies to restore traditional democratic values.
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