Joachim Paul, a state parliament member and mayoral candidate for Ludwigshafen, was barred on August 5, 2025, by an electoral committee made up exclusively of SPD, CDU, and FDP representatives — with no AfD presence — under the official pretext of «protecting the Constitution». A justification devoid of concrete evidence, which reeks of a political maneuver aimed at halting the rise of a party that had already become the city’s second-largest force in the last federal elections.
Paul called it «a deception against the citizens», and he is not alone: many see the hand of an establishment ready to trample on the people’s right to choose in order to cling to power. The Grundgesetz, Germany’s Basic Law, guarantees free, direct elections without political discrimination, but if an arbitrary interpretation of «constitutional protection» is enough to erase a candidacy, democracy becomes a fenced-in space reserved for the «approved» few.
And this is not an isolated case in Europe: one need only recall the annulment of Călin Georgescu’s victory in Romania and the murky circumstances surrounding Nicușor Dan’s contested win over George Simion — two episodes that feed the perception of a continental mechanism increasingly hostile to those who challenge the established order.
Taken together, these incidents paint the picture of a Europe where bureaucracy and establishment parties feel entitled to decide who can run and who cannot, turning the popular vote into a mere formality bent to the needs of those in power.
It is a scenario that seems to confirm JD Vance’s warnings that Europe is heading down «a dark path» of censorship, silencing, and political isolation of those labeled «dangerous» by the ruling elite. This is no longer about ordinary political disagreements, but about a shift in which institutions, instead of guaranteeing pluralism, are transformed into tools for suppressing it.
The Ludwigshafen case fits perfectly into this pattern: no democratic debate, just preemptive exclusion. Paul has announced an appeal to the Federal Constitutional Court, but in the meantime, the anger of his supporters is growing, along with deepening distrust in institutions, fostering a polarization that risks leaving lasting wounds.
Because those who manipulate elections and erase candidacies are not the guardians of democracy — they are its worst enemies. And Germany, like the rest of Europe, would do well to remember this before it’s too late, lest it discover it has traded the rule of law for a state of control.
