Germany's justice minister pushes a review of an AfD ban, including leaked emails; Merz's line stands

Germany's justice minister, Stefanie Hubig, wants the federal government and the states to check whether the Alternative for Germany (AfD) can be banned. She says hundreds of thousands of leaked party emails could be part of that review. On Monday, the government's spokesman said the chancellor's position had not changed. Friedrich Merz has said for months that he doubts a ban case would succeed.

Hubig, a Social Democrat, made the case in an interview with the Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung (NOZ) published on Saturday, November 7. "I am convinced that we must now seriously and systematically examine whether the conditions for a ban procedure are met," she said. She called it "an existential question for democracy."

The push opens a visible gap inside the coalition of the Christian Democrats (CDU), their Bavarian sister party (CSU) and the Social Democrats (SPD). Only the federal government, the Bundestag or the Bundesrat can ask the Federal Constitutional Court to ban a party. Hubig said the government can only decide "by consensus." She added: "I am working on that."

What Hubig proposed#

In the NOZ interview, Hubig backed a joint working group of the federal government and the states. Such a group "can gather and evaluate material," she said. "On this basis, a political and legal decision must then be made." She set one condition for going further: "If an application has concrete prospects of success, then it must also be filed."

The idea of a joint working group did not start with her. Manuela Schwesig, the SPD premier of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, and Hendrik Wüst, the CDU premier of North Rhine-Westphalia, had both called for one. Hubig said she also considers it sensible.

Hubig tied her push to events in Saxony-Anhalt. The AfD won the state election there in September with 43.8% of the vote, tagesschau reported. Last month the state parliament elected an AfD lawmaker, Tobias Rausch, as its president. It was the first time an AfD member had held that post in any German state. AfD lead candidate Ulrich Siegmund plans to stand for state premier in mid-December.

"Even the election of an AfD lawmaker as president of the state parliament was a turning point," Hubig told the NOZ. She said an AfD government in Saxony-Anhalt would be, "as far as can be judged, a hard stress test for the rule of law." She also said Germany must fight "all extremists," naming right-wing extremists, left-wing extremists and Islamists.

The leaked emails#

The leak at the center of the debate went online in October. Unknown hackers published about 280 gigabytes of AfD data, the Tagesspiegel reported. The paper said the files include about 421,000 emails from 2013 to 2026. There are also more than 48,000 documents, among them board minutes, membership lists and payroll records. ZDF, Der Spiegel and Austria's Der Standard said they analyzed the material with technical help from the reporting network OCCRP.

Asked whether the emails could supply material for a ban case, Hubig said: "In principle, all findings that are available can be used." The emails "could probably be used" too, she said, "if they provide evidence of the AfD's hostility to the constitution."

The AfD confirmed a hacking attack but disputes how the material is being used. In a statement on its website, the party said a hosting provider was attacked at the end of September. It said only a few mailboxes were copied but that large amounts of data had leaked. "Such a digital attack is illegal and relevant under criminal law," the party said. "It is also an attack on the German party system and thus on democracy." The AfD said it had informed the mailbox owners and the data protection officer, was in close contact with security authorities and had filed a criminal complaint.

The party also said the content appeared to have been analyzed with "very rudimentary AI," based on keywords rather than context. It said the alleged scandals published so far do not hold up when the content is checked. In a second statement, the AfD said its staff would not answer questions about whether specific leaked items were real or fake. It said it had already found "some worrying forgeries." It urged the public not to use or share material linked to the theft. 567politics has not reviewed the leaked files and does not report on their contents here.

The government's answer on Monday#

At the regular federal government press conference on Monday, November 9, a reporter asked whether Hubig's remarks had been agreed within the government. The official transcript, published by the transparency platform FragDenStaat, records the reply of deputy government spokesman Meyer.

He pointed to remarks Merz made on Friday to the regional newspaper Westfalenpost. "His remarks were in line with the previous position, and that continues to apply," Meyer said. Asked whether the government had downloaded the leaked emails, he said he did not believe the federal press office downloads emails.

A spokesman for the interior ministry, Bowinkelmann, added that the question was how the material matters for the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), Germany's domestic intelligence agency. "The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution uses all available findings for observations of this kind," he said.

The Westfalenpost reported on the remarks, made at a reader event in Hagen, under the headline that Merz is "more than skeptical" about a ban. A related overview of the event, posted on Monday, says he views a ban as "extremely skeptical." The full text is behind a paywall, and 567politics was not able to read his exact words.

Merz and Söder: beat the party at the ballot box#

Merz has held the same line since the Saxony-Anhalt vote. At a press conference with European Council President António Costa on September 9, he said a review was possible but that the bar was high. "We are happy to keep examining it, but in my view it is a very high hurdle," he said, as quoted by tagesschau and ZDF. "I am and remain skeptical whether such a ban procedure can succeed."

He also argued that a ban would not fix the underlying problem. "I do not believe that banning this party solves the problem that the voters of this party see in Germany," Merz said. He called instead for a political contest. The center, and the CDU, must win those voters back with "a convincing political offer" that takes "their fears and their reservations" seriously, he said.

CSU leader Markus Söder, the premier of Bavaria, has gone further. "A ban debate does not solve the problem, it even makes it worse," he said at his party's congress in Munich in late October, the Tagesspiegel reported. He said constitutional lawyers judge a ban procedure "extremely difficult." It would take a long time and would only strengthen the AfD's "martyr status," he said. "We must defend ourselves democratically." Hesse's CDU premier, Boris Rhein, has also voiced doubts, according to tagesschau.

Wüst: an open-ended review#

Wüst's proposal sits between those positions. He has called for a joint federal-state working group on how to deal with the party. "Overall, it is about the question of how the state deals constitutionally with a party that, at least in some states, pursues anti-constitutional goals," he said in September, as quoted by tagesschau. He wants intelligence officials, constitutional lawyers and other experts from both levels to take part. The review must be open-ended, he said. He also warned against "rash moves." "Banning a political party can only be the last resort if we want to protect our constitution," Wüst said.

The Greens in the Bundestag backed the idea. Their interior policy spokesman, Marcel Emmerich, called for "a clear timetable, a joint review by the federal government and the states and concrete next steps," tagesschau reported, citing the Handelsblatt. The CSU's leader in the Bundestag, Alexander Hoffmann, took the other side. "The goal must be to govern the AfD away, not to ban it away," he told the Augsburger Allgemeine.

That framing matters for the Bundesrat, the chamber of the 16 states. It is one of the three bodies that can file a ban application. Wüst currently holds the rotating presidency of the Bundesrat.

Campaigners: file the application#

Outside parliament, the campaign group Campact says more than a million people have signed its appeal "Examine an AfD ban." In a release on November 5, it said the signers ask Merz and Wüst to start a ban application. It accused Merz and Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt of blocking the process.

"One million signatures are a signal that cannot be ignored," said Felix Kolb, a member of Campact's executive board. He said the states now have a chance to build a majority in the Bundesrat. He urged the leaders of the CDU and CSU to take citizens seriously.

Campact also cited a legal opinion from the Society for Civil Rights (GFF) from June 2026. It says the opinion concludes that the AfD is unconstitutional. It also cited a survey by the pollster pollytix, done for Campact's think tank TTRex. In that poll, 66% of CDU/CSU voters favored examining a federal ban procedure. The poll was commissioned by a group that campaigns for a ban.

Where the AfD stands legally#

The federal BfV observes the AfD nationwide as a suspected case of extremism, the Tagesspiegel noted. Several state branches are classified by state intelligence offices as "confirmed right-wing extremist." That includes the Saxony-Anhalt branch, which the state office has classified that way since 2023, tagesschau reported. The state office says the branch violates principles of the free democratic basic order, such as human dignity and democracy. The AfD in Saxony-Anhalt is suing over the classification. That case is currently suspended.

The AfD also wants the courts to set clearer limits. Its deputy federal spokesman, Stefan Möller, pointed in a party statement to two constitutional complaints. Both were filed on September 10 by AfD members whose gun permits were revoked because of their party membership. Möller said the standards in those cases are partly comparable to those for a party ban.

He said he hoped the Federal Constitutional Court would use the cases to refine its case law dating from the NPD proceedings. He wants the court to say whether thousands of initiatives and speeches by AfD lawmakers can still be "almost completely" left out of an overall assessment. He also wants it to say how a party could ever rebut such an assessment. He noted the AfD is by far the strongest party in eastern Germany. The statement described Wüst's call for a working group as a sign that "nerves are frayed."

How a ban would work#

Germany's Basic Law allows the Federal Constitutional Court to ban parties that seek to undermine or abolish the free democratic basic order. The court has banned two parties: the Socialist Reich Party in 1952 and the Communist Party in 1956. In 2017 it declined to ban the far-right NPD. It found that the party pursued anti-constitutional aims but was too small to achieve them.

A ban requires an application from the Bundestag, the Bundesrat or the federal government. The court then decides. The SPD and the opposition Greens back a review, while the Union's leaders are skeptical, according to tagesschau.

Competing arguments#

Supporters of a review say the AfD's rise has made the question urgent. Hubig argues that all available evidence, possibly including the leaked emails, should be examined. A case should be filed if it has concrete prospects of success.

Skeptics in the Union say a case would be hard to win and would not change voters' minds. Merz wants to win those voters back with policy. Söder says a ban debate makes the AfD stronger.

Campaigners go further than a review. Campact wants a ban application and argues that public and legal support already exist.

The AfD calls the leak a crime and an attack on democracy. It warns against using the data and wants the constitutional court to set clearer standards.

Readers can compare where the parties stand on economic and social issues on the Germany political spectrum. Party profiles are available for the AfD, the CDU, the CSU, the SPD and the Greens, along with profiles of Stefanie Hubig, Friedrich Merz, Markus Söder and Alice Weidel. Hubig's earlier draft law on verbal sexual harassment is covered in our earlier report.

The December vote in Magdeburg#

The next test comes in Saxony-Anhalt, where Siegmund plans to stand for state premier in mid-December. Any federal-state working group would first have to be agreed by the government and the states. Hubig has said she is working toward consensus in the cabinet. The government's spokesman said on Monday that the chancellor's line still applies.

Differing perspectives

Should Germany's federal government and states formally examine a ban of the AfD, and should leaked party emails be part of that review?

Each position is summarized as its supporters make it, with equal weight and in alphabetical order. A summary is not an endorsement; the evidence for each is weighed in the story above.

• Court should set clearer standards

  Who holds it: AfD deputy federal spokesman Stefan Möller

  Möller says calls for a working group show that nerves are frayed over the AfD's success. He hopes the constitutional court will use two gun-permit complaints by AfD members to clarify its case law from the NPD proceedings. He asks whether thousands of AfD initiatives and speeches can still be almost completely ignored in an overall assessment, and how a party could ever rebut one.

  In their words: Alternative für Deutschland ↗

• File a ban application now

  Who holds it: Campact, a campaign group whose appeal says it has over one million signatures

  Campact says more than a million signers want Merz and Wüst to start a ban application, and it accuses Merz and Interior Minister Dobrindt of blocking the process. It cites a June 2026 legal opinion by the Society for Civil Rights that concludes the party is unconstitutional, and a poll it commissioned in which 66% of CDU/CSU voters back examining a ban.

  In their words: Campact ↗

• Open-ended expert review, ban as last resort

  Who holds it: North Rhine-Westphalia premier Hendrik Wüst (CDU)

  Wüst says the question is how the state deals constitutionally with a party that pursues anti-constitutional goals in at least some states. He wants a federal-state working group of intelligence officials, constitutional lawyers and other experts. The review must be open-ended and must not lead automatically to a ban case. He warns against rash moves and says a party ban can only be the last resort.

  In their words: tagesschau ↗

• Review systematically, file if it can win

  Who holds it: Federal Justice Minister Stefanie Hubig (SPD)

  Hubig says Germany must now seriously and systematically examine whether the conditions for a ban procedure are met, calling it an existential question for democracy. She backs a federal-state working group to gather and evaluate material. All available findings can be used, she says, including the leaked emails if they show hostility to the constitution. If an application has concrete prospects of success, it must be filed.

  In their words: Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung ↗

• Skeptical of a ban, win voters back

  Who holds it: Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU)

  Merz says a review is possible but the hurdle is very high, and he remains skeptical that a ban procedure could succeed. He does not believe a ban would solve the problem the party's voters see in Germany. He argues the political center, including the CDU, must win those voters back with a convincing offer that takes their fears and reservations about current policy seriously.

  In their words: tagesschau ↗

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