German court overturns ban on far-right antisemitic magazine, citing freedom of expression
The ruling marks a blow to efforts amongst mainstream German politicians and groups to mitigate the influence of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party
Jürgen Elsässer, editor-in-chief of the magazine “Compact”, is interviewed by journalists in front of the Federal Administrative Court in Leipzig. (Elisa Schu/picture alliance via Getty Images)
(JTA) — A German court overturned a ban Tuesday on a far-right German magazine that frequently espouses antisemitic and anti-immigrant rhetoric.
In Tuesday’s decision, the German Federal Administrative Court in Leipzig ruled that while the magazine, Compact, frequently presents unconstitutional viewpoints, it does “not yet” present a threat to Germany.
The initial ban on the incendiary magazine had been put in place last June after the court found Compact had “rejected the constitutional order and exhibited a fundamentally anti-constitutional stance” in its publications.
Nancy Faeser, the interior minister at the time of the initial ban last year, called the magazine “the main mouthpiece for the rightwing extremist scene” and said that it “agitates in an unspeakable way against Jews, against people with a history of migration and against our parliamentary democracy.”
But in the recent ruling, the judge found that while Compact had promoted anti-constitutional ideas, that did not justify the ban.
“The basic law guarantees even the enemies of the constitution, with faith in the power of free societal debate, freedom of expression and the press,” the presiding judge Ingo Kraft said.
Compact has close ties with Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, which was formally classified as extremist by the German government in May, drawing praise from the local Jewish community. In February, Vice President J.D. Vance drew criticism after he attacked the so-called “firewall” Germany’s mainstream parties have maintained against AfD.
AfD came in a record second place finish in Germany’s elections in February, coming behind the country’s center-right party.
The recent ruling marks a blow to efforts amongst mainstream German politicians and groups to mitigate the influence of AfD, which has a history of downplaying the Holocaust and opposing the country’s culture of Holocaust remembrance.
It also underscores the strong protections of free speech enshrined in German law, a response to the totalitarian Nazi regime of the 20th century.
In 2021, Germany’s Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, the domestic intelligence agency, said that statements in the publication “repeatedly contain anti-Semitic conspiracy theories and Islamophobic motifs,” and denoted it as a rightwing extremist and placed it under surveillance.
The ruling Tuesday was celebrated by Compact’s chief executive and editor Jürgen Elsässer, who posted the German word “Sieg,” or victory in German in a post on X.
Björn Höcke, the leader of the party’s most radical wing, also celebrated the appeal of the ban in a post on X Tuesday in which he lambasted Faeser for the initial ban.
“Instead of pursuing Islamists, she hunted harmless government critics with completely disproportionate severity and staged the persecution measures as a media event,” wrote Höcke.
