Berlin once stood for freedom. Now it stands for lawfare. In 1963, JFK came to Berlin to support a city surrounded by tyranny. Today, Germany is using its own courts to crush opposition parties like AfD. The excuse is extremism. The real reason is fear. Lawfare has become the tool of choice for elites who can’t win with voters, so they go after rivals with judges instead. This isn’t democracy. It’s control dressed up in legal robes.
The surest sign that Europe is digging deeper into its DEI and ‘woke’ grave became evident when the German government conveniently labeled the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) political party as an extremist organization. Unless the courts overturn the move, AfD, the second-highest seat winner in the recent parliamentary elections and increasingly popular, especially in the rural areas and Eastern Germany, will be permanently excommunicated from the political process. AfD’s rise in the east was not a fluke, it was a map-redrawing event.
Nancy Faeser, the German Interior Minister, used strong negative language to justify her government’s actions against AfD. However, voters in the German heartland have repeatedly rejected Faeser's elitist views in recent elections, making AfD the second-most popular political party in the country and the largest opposition party. In the 2025 German Federal Election (February 23, 2025), AfD's vote share was 20.8%, nearly doubling its 2021 tally.
Voter discontent over immigration, energy costs, and distrust in the mainstream parties were at issue. AfD was seen as the solution to Germany's structural problems brought on by woke leadership, no matter which party was in power. To keep AfD out, the establishment parties came together—left, right, and center.
Europe, which lives, breathes, and prays around the "Democratic" altar, has thumbed its nose at the very fabric of democracy by banning a political party for the second time in as many months. Recall that a French court had held its opposition leader, Marine Le Pen, unfit to contest the next presidential election. That decision, still playing out in the upper courts, was a convenient gift to the ruling party of President Macron.
If a German citizen thought they had been time-transported to Iran, Syria, the Congo, Romania, or Jordan, they would not be wrong.
Iran: After the 2009 presidential election, two major pro-reform parties, the Islamic Iran Participation Front and the Mojahedin of the Islamic Revolution Organization, were banned amid post-election protests. The extreme rightwing leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was declared the winner with approximately 62.6% of the vote, securing a second term as president. This led to a period of further oppression and significant movement toward the development of Iran’s nuclear program. Since then, Iran's political system has continued to restrict opposition through disqualifications by the Guardian Council and harassment of groups like the Freedom Movement, which has been denied legal registration for decades.
Syria: Bashar al-Assad, who ruled Syria with an iron hand from 2000 until his regime's collapse in December 2024, did so under the generous Syrian constitution (Article 8), which designated the Ba'ath Party as the "leader of state and society," making the country a one-party state. Independent political parties, particularly those advocating for democratic reform or opposing the regime, were harshly restricted or outlawed. Kurdish and Assyrian parties were repressed due to their ethnic-based platforms, which the regime viewed as threats to national unity. Religious parties were strictly banned under the pretext of maintaining secularism. Opposition groups like the National Democratic Front, led by figures such as Hassan Abdul Azim, were banned from public activities and faced crackdowns, with members often arrested or harassed by the regime's security apparatus, including the Mukhabarat (secret police).
The Congo: In April 2025, the DRC government banned the opposition party led by former President Joseph Kabila, citing alleged links to rebel groups. The party was a significant political force opposing President Félix Tshisekedi.
Romania: In November 2024, Romania's conservative nationalist Călin Georgescu unexpectedly took the lead with about 23% of the vote. His platform—anti-NATO, anti-EU, and promising to halt aid to Ukraine—alarmed the country's pro-Western establishment. On March 11, 2025, the country's Constitutional Court barred Georgescu from running in the rescheduled election (set for May 4, with a runoff on May 18), citing violations of democratic norms tied to campaign irregularities.
Jordan: In April 2025, Jordan banned the IAF, the largest party in its parliament, accusing it of ties to a sabotage plot. The IAF had gained significant support in the September 2024 elections, driven by public discontent over unemployment and the Gaza conflict.
Condemnation of the German government's actions was universal among people who uphold democratic values. It was once the domain of the liberal elite, but it is no longer.
Alice Weidel, the leader of AfD, obviously took a dim view of Berlin's actions by posting on X:
Right! The spy agency works for the ruling government, which is responsible for illegal mass migration, skyrocketing criminal rates, the highest taxes, and the highest energy prices. Since the AfD is the strongest party in polls now, they want to suppress the opposition & freedom of speech.
She was responding to U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio's pointed post on X, which had gathered more than 6 million views:
Germany just gave its spy agency new powers to surveil the opposition. That's not democracy—it's tyranny in disguise.
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.
Rubio's statement was a rare rebuke of a close ally's internal affairs and represented the official position of the United States government.
Prof. Michael Shellenberger, an avid free speech proponent, posted on X, garnering more than 12 million views.
Since WWII, Germany's liberal democracy has held. Now, it's on the brink. The government censors, spies on, and persecutes critics. And, today, it laid the groundwork to ban the nation's most popular political party, the AfD.
Democracy's promise shines brightest when vibrant political parties engage in robust policy debates, creating a dynamic system that reflects diverse voices and fosters accountable governance. Diverse parties ensure that a spectrum of perspectives—economic, social, and cultural—are voiced. From progressive to conservative, urban to rural, parties channel citizen priorities into the political arena, preventing marginalization and giving voters meaningful choices.
Germany and France have conveniently veered away from democracy's promise.
