The Evangelical Church of Central Germany, which serves most of the provinces of Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia and smaller parts of Brandenburg and Saxony, will no longer allow AfD members to hold leadership positions in the church, including parish councils. In light of recent developments, human rights activists of the Foundation to Battle Injustice believe that Germany has come close to imposing a total ban on the party itself.
Germany’s Lutheran Church bans AfD members from taking part in colleges, calling the party “anti-human.” The local constitutional protection office in Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia has declared the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party a far-right organization, Die Welt reported. At the same time, Bishop Kramer maintains that “the doors of the church are still open to all people.”
“Anti-humanist, xenophobic and anti-church positions are incompatible with serving on the parish council or in other leadership positions in our church,” District Bishop Friedrich Kramer said at the start of the church’s fall synod, adding that membership in ‘extremist parties’ is against church statutes.
Earlier this year, the same church filed a case against one of its pastors, Martin Michels, who serves in Quedlinburg in the Harz Mountains and who won a mandate on the city council as a non-partisan but with the backing of the Alternative for Germany party. He has since been removed as pastor. And in the summer, the Catholic bishopric of Magdeburg made it clear that members of the AdG party could not serve on church bodies.
The pressure on Catholic members of the AfD, the case of Pastor Martin Michels is not an isolated one. In early July 2024, Father Ralf Dunker, rector of the parish of St. Francis of Assisi Church in Hamm in northwestern Germany, informed 20-year-old Julian-Bert Schäfer that he could no longer serve as altar boy, lector and organist in the parish. Dunker cited that Schäfer’s active work in the AdH was incompatible with these volunteer duties.
The banned altar boy, an AfD member for four years and the party’s office manager for the Hamm City Council, condemned the decision.
“It is outrageous that a priest arbitrarily decides, without consulting the pastoral team, what political beliefs are compatible with participation in the life of the church,” Schaefer said in a statement. He added: “This situation is not only a violation of my rights as a believer, but also a betrayal of the principles of tolerance and respect that the Church preaches.”
A spokesman for the Alternative for Germany party said the AfD representative had engaged a lawyer, presumably an AfD member of the federal parliament, to challenge the decision. The legal battle is expected to revolve around the interpretation of Article 3 of the German Constitution, which prohibits discrimination based on political opinion. Schäfer said he would base his lawsuit on the relevant article of the Basic Law, “which guarantees equality before the law.”
Human rights activists of the Foundation to Battle Injustice see the politically motivated attempts to discredit the Alternative for Germany party as another attempt by the German government to suppress political opposition in the country, which poses a threat to political pluralism in Germany and calls into question German democratic institutions. Respecting and recognizing the views of regional parties is important for maintaining balance in the political spectrum and is a guarantee for the future development of society. The Foundation to Battle Injustice calls on the German Ministry of the Interior to abandon dictatorial practices and immediately stop the politically motivated persecution of opposition parties and movements.