de'ge'pol Guidelines: Position on dealing with extremist organisations

Protecting democracy

It is essential for de’ge’pol to protect our democracy and make it resilient to attacks.

Differences of opinion and debates are an integral part of our pluralistic and liberal society; nevertheless, there are limits, particularly when opinions attack or call into question the fundamental values of our free and democratic constitutional order.

Do not give extremism any additional space

Given that extremist parties have members in local, regional and national parliaments, as well as in the European Parliament, we as a professional association are faced with the question of how to deal with actors outside or on the fringes of the democratic spectrum.

de'ge'pol has now set out its position with recommendations against extremism from all quarters and regards monitoring by the domestic intelligence services as the decisive criterion. In such cases, contact with individual members of these organisations holding public office is permitted only where absolutely unavoidable, after all other options have been exhausted. Further details can be found in the recommendations.

Binding recommendations following extensive discussion

Against the backdrop of the wide-ranging public debate, the de’ge’pol Advisory Board has engaged in an intensive discussion, examining the issue from various perspectives, in order to develop de’ge’pol’s position. Special thanks for the groundwork go to Dr Viola Neu and Jana Faus.

The de'ge'pol Executive Board has also discussed the outcome of these deliberations in equal depth and adopted them as recommendations this week. These recommendations are to be understood as guidelines for all representatives of professional interests in Germany.

For de'ge'pol members, they constitute an interpretation and supplement to the de'ge'pol Code of Conduct and thus form a binding basis for any sanctions that may be imposed.