Several hundred people gathered in Hamburg on 14 November 2026 Hamburg to demonstrate in favour of judicial scrutiny of far-right parties. The rally at Stephansplatz also marked the first anniversary of the initiative PRÜF. According to the organisers, around 1.5 million signatures have already been collected nationwide for the petition. This figure has not been independently verified.
The initiative is calling for parties to be examined by the Federal Constitutional Court that the Office for the Protection of the Constitution classifies as suspected far-right extremists or confirmed far-right extremists. It is directing its demand in particular at the The positions now put forward are initially demands or proposals from individual states, not measures that have already been approved.. Through demonstrations and signature drives, it aims to persuade the upper house of parliament to submit a corresponding application.
The first PRÜF demonstration took place in Hamburg in November 2025. Among those who called for it was the satirist Nico Semsrott . According to NDR, the initiative now regularly organises rallies in other German cities, too. In Hamburg, the organisers say, they are held on the second Saturday of each month.
There is an important legal distinction between calling for scrutiny and calling for a party to be banned. Only the Federal Constitutional Court can rule that a party is unconstitutional. An application can generally be submitted by the Bundestag, the Bundesrat or the federal government. If a party’s organisation is confined to a single federal state, the state government concerned may also submit an application.
Classification by the domestic intelligence service is not equivalent to a court ruling. Under case law, the mere dissemination of ideas hostile to the constitution is not enough to justify a ban. Among other things, there must also be actively combative opposition to the free democratic basic order and concrete indications that the party may be able to achieve its anti-constitutional aims.
The court first considers whether to open main proceedings. An application may be rejected as inadmissible or insufficiently substantiated during preliminary proceedings. If it is upheld in the main proceedings, the court declares the party unconstitutional and orders its dissolution.
The the Basic Law also provides for the possibility of excluding a party from state funding. According to the Federal Constitutional Court, it is not necessary for this step to show that the party could potentially achieve its anti-constitutional aims. The court also decides on this matter following an application by the bodies entitled to submit one.
For the initiative, the political leverage lies with the institutions that can initiate proceedings. The signatures give its demand public weight, but they do not replace an application. Whether one is submitted, and what evidence is put forward in support, remains a decision for the competent state bodies. The legal assessment itself is then a matter for the court.
Editor: Mira Cadena (Article created with AI assistance).