German lawmakers are considering whether to ban the nationalist Alternative for Germany, or AfD, just days after the country’s parliament, the Bundestag, approved a resolution seeking to significantly curb migration that the party was influential in passing. 

Polls currently show AfD in second place ahead of the upcoming parliamentary election in February, with roughly 20 percent support. It is questionable, however, whether the party would gain power, as other major parties have vowed not to form a coalition with it.

Proponents of the ban on AfD do not appear to have enough support to pass the measure. 

With the election just weeks away, German parliamentarians are debating whether the right move is to ban the party. Some portions of the party have been labeled an extremist group by Germany’s domestic intelligence agency. One of the right-wing politicians, Bjorn Hocke, has been found guilty of using Nazi slogans. Left-wing politicians and activists, as well as many European Union officials, view the party as a threat to Germany. 

There are questions among lawmakers about whether a ban could backfire and wind up helping the AfD by appearing to give credibility to its claim that it is unfairly being smeared. 

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz warned members of the Social Democratic Party that the “worst thing” they could do is take an action that “might end up going wrong.”

Lawmakers are considering whether to ask the top court in Germany to investigate if the AfD is an anti-constitutional party. Germany’s constitution allows for the ban of parties that want to undermine the “free democratic basic order.”

Besides the AfD’s associations with nationalist groups, its views on immigration have also motivated many of those pushing to ban the party. During a conference earlier this month, the party’s chancellor nominee, Alice Weidel, said Germany would see “repatriations on a large scale” and a “total closing of Germany’s borders” within the first 100 days of taking power if her party prevails in the elections.

She also committed to enacting a “remigration policy” for the millions of asylum-seekers already in the country. Critics of the policy point to a comment by a right-wing Austrian activist, Martin Sellner, who said “remigration” could mean the deportation of asylum seekers, foreigners with residency rights, and even “non-assimilated” citizens. However, supporters of the policy say it would not lead to the deportation of legal residents. 

Lawmakers also expressed outrage over a report that leaders of the AfD attended a “secret” meeting in November during which the idea of mass deportations of “non-assimilated” or “non-German” individuals, even if they have citizenship or residency rights, was said to have been floated. Ms. Weidel has criticized opponents of the AfD, claiming they use “Stasi methods [to] attack a private meeting to spy on respectable citizens.”

The Stasi, a nickname for the Minister for State Security, was the former East German secret police, and much of AfD’s support is in what was the Communist-led East.

Polls have found that immigration is a top issue for voters across Germany as the country struggles with an influx of migrants and concerns about the system being strained by noncitizens, as well as security concerns. Those concerns have, as in parts of the West, helped fuel calls for mass deportations.

Such concerns have been fueled by recent terrorist attacks in Germany. In December, a doctor born in Saudi Arabia, Taleb al-Abdulmohsen, was arrested and charged with murder, attempted murder, and other charges after allegedly driving a vehicle into a Christmas market and killing four women and a nine-year-old boy. Law enforcement says the suspect first entered Germany in 2006 and was granted refugee status a decade later. While he used a vehicle to ram into crowds of people, the same weapon used by other Islamic terrorists, law enforcement says he made anti-Islam posts on social media. 

On January 22, police arrested an Afghan national for allegedly killing two people in Southern Germany in a knife attack and said the suspect had been admitted to psychiatric treatment.

As the AfD’s popularity has grown in Germany, it has also received support from prominent figures in America, such as billionaire Elon Musk, who called the party the “best hope for Germany” during a virtual rally for the party on Saturday. Mr. Musk also promoted the AfD to his followers by sharing a live stream of the party’s conference earlier this month on his X account. 

As frustrations over Germany’s immigration policies grew, opposition to working with the AfD appeared to break down this week as the conservative Christian Democratic Union was able to pass a non-binding resolution that calls for stricter border and asylum rules. The resolution, which calls for a “ban” on people entering Germany without proper documentation, was only passed due to support from the AfD.

The CDU leader, Friedrich Merz, said his party did not seek assistance from the AfD to pass the vote. Mr. Merz also defended the measure and said that just because it received AfD support, it does not make it a flawed proposal. 

Despite Mr. Merz’s assertion his party did not seek assistance from AfD, it sent shockwaves through the Bundestag as lawmakers fretted that the commitment to not work with the nationalist party might be breaking down.

A former chancellor and member of the CDU, Angela Merkel, criticized her party for passing the immigration measure because it was supported by the AfD. Ms. Merkel noted that Mr. Merz had previously said no measure should be passed with AfD’s support.

“I think it was wrong to no longer feel bound by this proposal,” Ms. Merkel said. “This proposal and the attitude associated with it were an expression of great national political responsibility, which I fully support.”

Ms. Merkel has been seen as responsible for the migration crisis in Germany, which has helped the AfD’s popularity, for her decision to accept an influx of asylum seekers during her time as chancellor. 

Despite the outrage surrounding AfD, it does not appear that lawmakers with parties such as the SPD or the Greens have enough votes to pass the motion that would start the process of implementing a ban. 

Even as some politicians have expressed concerns that the AfD has extremist elements, they have said they believe the way to defeat the party is through the ballot box.