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Germany: Far-right magazine Compact appeals ban

July 25, 2024

Last week, the German Ministry of the Interior banned the right-wing extremist magazine Compact and its network. The magazine is now defending itself in court.

https://p.dw.com/p/4ijwp
Demonstrator Jürgen Elsässer with a poster from the right-wing magazine Compact at the Berlin rally
The Compact-Magazin firm has been classified by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution as extremist, nationalist and anti-minorityImage: IPON/IMAGO

The German right-wing extremist Compact magazine is taking legal action against its ban before the Federal Administrative Court in Leipzig.

Compact-Magazin GmbH filed both a lawsuit and an urgent appeal on Wednesday evening, a court spokesperson announced on Thursday.

The Federal Administrative Court is the court of first and last instance for such appeals. It was not yet clear when the court would rule on the case.

Why was the Compact magazine banned?

On July 16, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser banned the magazine, which had been classified as right-wing extremist by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Germany's domestic intelligence agency.

Faeser justified the move by saying that Compact was a "central mouthpiece of the right-wing extremist scene" and was directed against the constitutional order.

It agitates "in an unspeakable way against Jews, against people with a migration background and against our parliamentary democracy," Faeser said.

The magazine has since been banned, its websites and data carriers have been blocked and copies of the magazine were confiscated during searches in several German states.

Who is the magazine publisher?

The Compact-Magazin firm, run by Jürgen Elsässer, has been classified by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution as extremist, nationalist and anti-minority.

According to the Ministry of the Interior, the company's main products are the magazine Compact, which has been published monthly since December 2010 with a circulation of 40,000, and the online video channel Compact TV, which has 345,000 YouTube subscribers and has published almost 2,900 videos.

Elsässer acts as a "central liaison actor," according to the 2023 Report on the Protection of the Constitution. This is exemplified by Compact's collaboration with the far-right regional party Free Saxony and its networking with the AfD, the report said, adding that the group also has close ties to the far-right Identitarian Movement.

dh/sms (AFP, dpa)