Germany’s Dortmund takes far-right AfD to court over election posters

The western German city of Dortmund is taking the local chapter of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) to court over a dispute concerning election posters bearing the city’s coat of arms.

A city spokesman said on Tuesday that authorities will file an application for a temporary injunction with the Dortmund District Court.

The anti-immigrant party’s district association previously said that it would not comply with the city’s demand to remove the coat of arms from its posters ahead of local elections across the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia due to take place in a month’s time.

The spokesman said the AfD should be prohibited from using and publishing the city’s thousand-year-old coat of arms in election advertising, on election posters, online and on social media “without express written authorization.”

Existing posters with these signs should be destroyed or the sign made “permanently and completely unrecognizable,” he added.

The AfD has argued that the city allowed other parties to use a modified coat of arms in the past – for example, the Christian Democratic Union and the Free Voters in the 2014 local election campaign.

It said all parties should be treated equally, and argued the lawsuit would constitute interference in the local election campaign.

The far-right party also said that it had been using the city coat of arms on publications for years, without any complaints.