German courts force far-right AfD party to admit journalists to election party

ERFURT, September 1 () –

The Erfurt Regional Court has issued a ruling on Saturday that the far-right party Alternative for Germany (AfD) must allow several journalists – whom it had intended to ban – to attend its election party following the vote in Thuringia on Sunday.

However, this decision is not yet legally binding, as the AfD can still appeal the decision to the Higher Regional Court of Justice. However, given the short time available to the party before the polls open on Sunday, it is difficult to say whether its leadership will take any legal action before the aforementioned election day.

The ruling comes after German media outlets Der Spiegel, Springer Bild, Die Welt and Die Tageszeitung jointly appealed to the regional court to complain that some of their journalists had been excluded from the AfD’s post-election celebration, which they were planning to cover.

In this regard, the president of the court, Christoph von Friesen, has defended the ruling, stating that this type of event has an “informative character” and that, as the AfD has already allowed the entry of representatives of other media, it can be admitted that it is an “open” event.

The party will therefore also have to accept the participation of journalists from other media outlets, even though this right is not “unlimited” in small spaces, as Torben Braga, deputy spokesman for the state association of the AfD, has said.

Braga said that around 150 journalists had expressed their desire to attend the event by Saturday morning and that the venue’s capacity – as yet undisclosed – only allowed for a total of 200 participants, and another 50 media representatives had already received accreditation.

The far-right spokesman had previously said that the AfD was even considering cancelling the election party if the courts ruled in favour of the press.

This Sunday, the citizens of Thuringia are called to elect a new state parliament in an election in which – according to the latest polls – the AfD and its leading candidate, Björn Höcke, are leading with predictions that they will win around 30 percent of the votes.