This may be true in an unconstrained situation. But here you have a situation where the AfD is breathing down their necks. They will have to.
Yea? Remember 2015? And yet here we are, 9 years later and nothing has changed.
Their strategy isn't to confront the AfD based on politics like they always claim. Their strategy is to keep the AfD small with tricks (e.g. spoilers like BSW or giving citizenship to hordes of foreigners, "Geheimtreffen", Verfassungsschutz), cheats (e.g. software errors) and eventually a ban.
Yea? Remember 2015? And yet here we are, 9 years later and nothing has changed.
Things changed from the "center-right" openly being pro-immigration to even Ampel trying to pretend that it is anti-immigration. This doesn't mean they are, any more than the Union is, but it moves the Overton Window and it makes things previously taboo to be normal now.
Their strategy is to keep the AfD small with tricks (e.g. spoilers like BSW or giving citizenship to hordes of foreigners, "Geheimtreffen", Verfassungsschutz), cheats (e.g. software errors) and eventually a ban.
I don't think it will work. I can hardly imagine that they can possibly be that stupid, but given the fact that this is how the American establishment is dealing with Trump, it's not impossible.
The AfD is just a vessel. They don't crush opposition even if they do ban the AfD. They will just be at war with their own population, which is not bad because it will further discredit them.
Yea? Remember 2015? And yet here we are, 9 years later and nothing has changed.
Their strategy isn't to confront the AfD based on politics like they always claim. Their strategy is to keep the AfD small with tricks (e.g. spoilers like BSW or giving citizenship to hordes of foreigners, "Geheimtreffen", Verfassungsschutz), cheats (e.g. software errors) and eventually a ban.
Things changed from the "center-right" openly being pro-immigration to even Ampel trying to pretend that it is anti-immigration. This doesn't mean they are, any more than the Union is, but it moves the Overton Window and it makes things previously taboo to be normal now.
I don't think it will work. I can hardly imagine that they can possibly be that stupid, but given the fact that this is how the American establishment is dealing with Trump, it's not impossible.
The AfD is just a vessel. They don't crush opposition even if they do ban the AfD. They will just be at war with their own population, which is not bad because it will further discredit them.