Literary Tastes Bar Political Candidacy

In Ludwigshafen, officials used a domestic‑intelligence dossier to exclude AfD candidate Joachim Paul from the mayoral ballot, citing his sympathetic writings on Tolkien and the Nibelungenlied as signs of 'anti‑constitutional' tendencies. This treats mainstream conservative cultural readings as grounds to remove passive electoral rights. It signals an elastic standard that can convert speech and cultural preferences into ballot-access gatekeeping. — If cultural commentary can justify disqualification, 'protecting democracy' becomes a tool to narrow voter choice, raising alarms about rule‑of‑law and pluralism in European elections.