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This. Why does everyone think banning a party MUST be antidemocratic? If it can be proven that AfD is supporting Nazi views for example (which I am convinced many of its leaders are), then it's illegal in Germany and should be banned. Why would a party be above the law?

But scrutiny must work both ways, they should only be banned after due process.

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> Why does everyone think banning a party MUST be antidemocratic?

Probably because those "everyone" (in fact, a big portion of population) wants to have that party that the other side wants to ban, and there is chance it could happen. So they try to defend it preemptively by suggesting any banning in general would not be democratic (which is probably not true).

Another reason is that in recent history, most if not all German governments banning parties either were undemocratic, or turned out to dismantle democracy.

I meant here on HN. I seriously doubt there's a lot of AfD voters on HN =)

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