German Communist Party not admitted to the elections and will be deprived of its status as a political party

In the following, you will find the statement of the chairman of the German Communist Party Patrik Köbele on the notification of the Federal Election Commissioner that the DKP will not be admitted to the Bundestag elections in September, and at the same time will be deprived of its status as a political party. The allegedly late submission of financial statements is used as a pretext.

Our party will fight against these attempts of an indirect party ban: for this, we need your solidarity. We therefore ask for declarations of solidarity from the Communist and Workers’ Parties.

Commenting on the actions of the Federal Election Commissioner, DKP Chairman Patrik Köbele said:

“What is being attempted with that is a cold party ban. We as communists are familiar with this. In 1933, the Communist Party was banned by the fascists, in 1956 by the Adenauer justice. There must be great fear of us that this will now be carried out by bureaucratic means in 2021.

Of course, we will use all legal means. We are sure that this attempt will fail.

The deprivation of the status as a party would be an attempt to drive our party into financial ruin. This is one of the various scandals in which attempts have been made to ruin progressive organizations by withdrawing their non-profit status.

This attempt is part of the increasing criminalization and defamation of left-wing forces. This attempt is part of the instrumentalization of the coronavirus pandemic for the dismantling of democracy and social programs.

This is not only about the electoral candidacy of the communists, which is why we call on all democratic forces to oppose this attempt at a cold party ban.”

Source: German Communist Party via Solidnet