Germany’s Interior Ministry on Tuesday (16) banned the right-wing magazine Compact, accusing it of being a “mouthpiece of the right-wing extremist scene” and inciting hatred against Jews and foreigners.
Stepping up the government’s fight against what it says is a rise in right-wing extremism in Germany, the ministry said Compact had been working against the constitutional order and ordered searches of properties in four states.
Compact magazine, which is widely seen as a defender of the radical wing of the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, has a circulation of 40,000 copies and a wide-reaching social media presence. The ban also applies to Compact’s subsidiary Conspect Film and prohibits any continuation of previous activities.
The searches at the magazine’s offices, as well as at the homes of its top figures, administrators and main shareholders in Brandenburg, Hesse, Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt, were aimed at seizing assets and other evidence, the ministry said.
“It is a central mouthpiece of the right-wing extremist scene. This magazine incites hatred against Jews, people with a migration background and our parliamentary democracy in an unspeakable way,” said Interior Minister Nancy Faeser.
Faeser described right-wing extremism as the biggest radical threat to German democracy, as mainstream politicians struggle to respond to the AfD’s surge in popularity ahead of East German elections this year.
Compact magazine editor-in-chief Juergen Elsaesser did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.
Several hours after the ministry announced the ban, Compact’s website could still be read online. Its accounts on social media platforms such as X were also still accessible.
Right-wing ties
The Interior Ministry said the monthly magazine founded in 2010 was a central part of the New Right network and had close links to the far-right Identitarian Movement as well as others across what it called the far-right extremist party spectrum.
The magazine was designated a verifiably right-wing extremist publication by the country’s national intelligence agency in 2021 for disseminating conspiracy theories, anti-vaccination propaganda, and anti-Semitic and Islamophobic narratives.
Advertisements for the magazine’s summer festival on July 27 feature the presence of Maximilian Krah, an AfD politician whose refusal to condemn all members of the Nazi paramilitary SS under Adolf Hitler led the AfD to expel Krah from the Identity and Democracy group in the European Parliament.
Martin Sellner, an Austrian leader of the Identitarian Movement, was also promoted on the Compact website as a guest.
Hans-Christoph Berndt, leader of the AfD in the Brandenburg parliament, linked the timing of the ban to September elections in three eastern states, including Brandenburg.
“One thing is certain: those who ban critical media do so not to protect democracy, but out of fear of democracy,” he said.
Source: CNN Brasil
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