While the aging dictator of Nicaragua Daniel Ortega this week announced he was suspending elections indefinitely, Europe seems to be on a similar path – as Victor Orban’s Hungarian Fidesz Party was raided Wednesday and had their servers confiscated, and Romanian Presidential elections were anulled 2024. Now, Germany seems to have discovered a new strategy – as legacy parties are simply excluding candidates from the patriotic AfD party from elections.
Local elections are set to take place in the state of Lower Saxony, home of Volkswagen and surrounding the Free City of Hamburg, on Sept. 13, where the Alternative for Germany party is currently polling at about 20% behind Christian Democrats and Social Democrats at about 25% each. Nationally, the AfD is currently the strongest party in the polls at about 29%, and may even win a majority in the East German states of Saxony-Anhalt and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, which elect new state parliaments and state governments in September.
So the failing legacy parties are resorting to ever more repressive measures. Along with the ever-present threat of Antifa violence, debanking, and media slander, efforts have been underway to ban the largest opposition party outright. Since the German secret political police have not been able to prove the AfD is a danger to democracy in court, these efforts by the ruling Social Democrats seem doomed to fail.
Therefore, ahead of the Sept. 13 local elections in Lower Saxony, the ruling red-green coalition changed the election rules in February, allowing local election boards to ban individual candidates if they have “doubts in their loyalty to the constitution”, however that may be defined. Also in February, the Lower Saxony secret political police (Verfassungsschutz – Office for the Protection of the Constitution) announced it was classifying the local AfD as “confirmed far-right”.
A temporary injunction against this decision filed by the AfD was struck down in June.
Now, as the election approaches, local election boards in Lower Saxony have started examining and even banning AfD candidates from running. At least 11 AfD candidates are currently being investigated for allegedly lacking “loyalty to the constitution”, without any legal recourse or opportunity to defend themselves. The only reason for banning them offered is that they are AfD members, so they must be “far-right” and therefore a danger to democracy.
On Tuesday, July 21, AfD Bundestag member Martin Sichert was banned from running for county board member in Friesland by the very parties he is running against.
Here he describes what happened in English:
Jetzt aufgrund des großen medialen Interesses auch in Englisch, was da gestern im Wahlausschuss passiert ist: pic.twitter.com/RlauBD5goA
— Martin Sichert, MdB (@Martin_Sichert) July 22, 2026
On Wednesday, AfD candidate Reinhild Goes, a board member of the AfD youth group “Generation Germany”, was also banned from running for Mayor in the town of Nörten-Hardenberg, even though election officials had recommended approving her. No reason was given by the election board.
Frau @reinhild_goes wurde jetzt ebenfalls von der Wahl ausgeschlossen. Weil sie allein schon wegen ihres jugendlichen Alters rein gar nichts auf dem Kerbholz hat, verzichtete man auf eine Begründung. Niedersachsen versinkt im rotgrünen Totalitarismus. pic.twitter.com/xgaFdk85MA
— Stefan Homburg (@SHomburg) July 23, 2026
The first example of such a ban was the mayoral candidate in Ludwigshafen Joachim Paul, who was also banned from running on equally specious grounds.
America spends trillions on NATO to protect democracies including Germany. But it is has just prevented an opposition candidate from running for mayor for frivolous reasons including his praise for “Lord of the Rings.” This is a clear violation of NATO’s Charter. pic.twitter.com/KdTB4S1GX6
— Michael Shellenberger (@shellenberger) August 29, 2025
Last September, Paul was invited to the White House with AfD Bundestag vice-chair Beatrix von Storch to describe his case.
“Since the legacy parties continue down this undemocratic path, I have reported this new case there as well,” von Storch wrote on X. “I assume they will be interested, since the Trump administration has made clear they expect NATO to respect democracy and the rule of law.”
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