Germany's Habeck: far-right 'attacking the essence of the republic'

Members of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) are authoritarians who pose a threat to the country's democratic order, German Vice-Chancellor Robert Habeck said in an interview published on Wednesday.

"The right-wing authoritarians are attacking the essence of the republic," Habeck, a Green Party leader, told Stern magazine. "They want to turn Germany into a state like Russia."

Habeck's comments come a week after news reports revealed that AfD politicians held a meeting with far-right extremists in November in Potsdam that included Martin Sellner, the founder of the far-right extremist Identitarian Movement Austria.

The revelations have helped fuel a controversial debate in Germany about whether the AfD should be banned. German law allows for suppressing political parties deemed hostile to the country's democratic and constitutional order.

Participants at the Potsdam meeting have acknowledged that they discussed how to encourage, or force, immigrants and other groups to leave Germany.

Sellner told dpa that he discussed "remigration" with the group, a term frequently used in far-right circles as a euphemism for the expulsion of immigrants and minorities.

Anti-AfD demonstrations have taken place in several cities in the week since the investigative news outlet Correctiv first reported on the meeting.

Habeck told the magazine that people on the far right are systematically preparing for their attack on Germany's republic.

Habeck, however, demurred when asked about a potential legal ban against the AfD, saying that Germany's Constitutional Court would ultimately decide and that democratic political parties would need to win back AfD supporters either way.

He said the banning is not a political but a legal question and that damage from a failed case would be massive.