With a vote endorsing an AfD ban procedure, the “Process Against Germany” by Milo Rau came to an end Sunday evening at the Thalia Theater in Hamburg. The seven jurors agreed that a ban should be reviewed by the Federal Constitutional Court and that the AfD should be excluded from government funding. Yet, in the fictional, artistic trial, a slim majority of the jury did not advocate banning the far-right and anti-LGBTQ party. The presiding judge was former SPD federal justice minister Herta Däubler-Gmelin.
For the indictment, Hamburg jurist Gabriele Heinecke stated in her closing address: “This party is a threat to a large portion of the population in this country.” Her colleague, journalist Andreas Speit, added: “We need a critical dialogue.” This should also include “the right to say, up to this point and no further.”
The strength of the AfD lies in the failure of the other parties
The writer and lawyer Liane Bednarz, acting as defense, stressed that banning the AfD would not solve the problem. “Concerns that are real will not disappear with a ban.” The idea was reinforced by author Frédéric Schwilden (“Toxic Man”), who said: “The strength of the AfD is not its program; the strength of the AfD is the failure of the other parties.”
While the jurors deliberated, there were two closing speeches. Former AfD leader Frauke Petry emphasized that bans are the beginning of the end of progress. And moderator Michel Abdollahi explained that not the AfD is the main defendant in this process, but “the complacency of the so-called center.” He added: “Democracy is work, and we have become incredibly lazy.”
The spectacular three-day pseudo-trial, based on an idea from the globally successful yet controversial Swiss filmmaker and author Milo Rau, began on Friday evening (TheColu.mn reported). Across five sessions, more than 30 experts argued and debated, and no actors spoke from a script; the participants included celebrities such as Hamburg’s Kultur-Senator Carsten Brosda (SPD), the American philosopher Susan Neiman, and the columnist Harald Martenstein.
The jurors also expressed opposition to regulating media platforms. Rau (49), director of the Wiener Festwochen, has turned his courtroom format into a distinctive artistic brand. In Vienna he had already staged a trial against the FPÖ. In 2015, he gathered 60 witnesses in the Congo for the “Kongo Tribunal.”
On the real political stage in Berlin, discussions about an AfD ban are well underway. The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution had already concluded that the AfD is clearly right-wing extremist. This assessment remains paused due to a pledge by the agency to refrain from ruling while the Köln Administrative Court case, in which the AfD is suing, proceeds.
