Germany's conservative opposition leader Jens Spahn has proposed revoking the electoral rights of Björn Höcke, the firebrand head of the Alternative for Germany party in the eastern state of Thuringia. Spahn, who leads the CDU/CSU parliamentary group, raised the idea in a podcast published Thursday, suggesting Höcke should lose both his active and passive voting rights. Höcke has been twice convicted by a Halle court for using a banned SA slogan. The Thuringian branch of the AfD was classified as confirmed right-wing extremist by the state's domestic intelligence agency in 2021.
The proposal follows a similar call in mid-June by former SPD politician Peer Steinbrück to withdraw the passive electoral rights of individual AfD representatives. Spahn urged a clear boundary between mainstream parties and the AfD.
Reader reaction was largely critical: 40 percent of comments called the proposal an attack on democratic rights, while only 4 percent welcomed it.