German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser has banned the magazine Compact, considered as a “mouthpiece of the far-right extremist scene” her ministry said on Tuesday.
According to a statement, Affiliated production company Conspect Film GmbH has also been banned.
Police raided the outlet’s premises in Falkensee, just outside Berlin, as well as the homes of leading managers and shareholders in the states of Brandenburg, Hesse and Saxony.
It also said that Saxony-Anhalt to confiscate assets and evidence.
Faeser justified the ban by saying that Compact is a “central mouthpiece of the far-right extremist scene.
“This magazine incites hatred against Jews, against people with a history of migration and against our parliamentary democracy in an unspeakable manner,” the minister said.
Compact is a monthly political magazine led by Editor-in-Chief, Jürgen Elsässer, who likes to incite his audience at events with slogans like “Americans go home’’ and “Friendship with Russia.’’
The magazine’s leading figures maintain contacts with important figures of the far-right scene.
In its online shop, the outlet offers a coin with the image of Björn Höcke, a firebrand politician from the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD).
AfD was recently convicted and fined again for using a banned Nazi slogan.
Germany’s domestic intelligence service, known as the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, classified Compact as a proven far-right extremist publication in late 2021.
It noted that the magazine spreads anti-democratic and inhumane positions.
Faeser said the ban shows that “we are also taking action against the intellectual arsonists who are fuelling a climate of hatred and violence against refugees and migrants and want to overcome our democratic state.’’
In order for an organisation to be banned in Germany, it was not enough that it propagates an anti-constitutional stance, but it must do so in an aggressive and militant manner.
In its statement, the Interior Ministry cited fears that readers and viewers of Compact content could be incited and encouraged to carry out anti-constitutional acts.
Compact publications `aggressively propagate the overthrow of the political order,’’ it said.
