Voting for the far-right AfD is no longer protest

[pieter]

Charlotte Waayers

correspondent Central Europe

For many Germans, voting for the far-right AfD is no longer in protest

If there were elections in Germany on Sunday, more than one in five Germans would vote for the Alternative für Deutschland (Alternative for Germany), according to recent polls. Those elections will not take place in Germany yet, but at the moment the Alternative für Deutschland party is doing better than the chancellor's. For the past few weeks, Germany has had an Alternative für Deutschland district administrator and mayor for the first time. More successes for the party, which is seen as far right, are desired by some and feared by others.

These days, the Alternative für Deutschland campaign is settling down in Pirna, an old Saxon town with cobblestones, pastel stucco facades and flowers in the windows. A high, carved door gives access to the town hall: "my masterpiece", says Tim Lochner. He is a carpenter, entrepreneur and recently also the person who has to become the first 'Oberbürgermeister' for the AfD here.


Mayor of Pirna, Tim Lochner of the Alternative für Deutschland party. Pirna is a town in Saxony, Germany and capital of the administrative district Sächsische Schweiz-Osterzgebirge. The town's population is over 37,000. Pirna is located near Dresden and is an important district town as well as a Große Kreisstadt.

The party has set up a small podium on the market square where several AfD politicians address the people. Next to the stage hangs a huge banner against 'gendern': a German term for both men and women in one word, sometimes separated by an asterisk (eg Student*innen).

This practice has become a point of political controversy. Conservative and right-wing politicians have made it a symbol of what they see as a left-wing campaign to force people to do things they don't want to do. "German spelling has no '*innen'," read the AfD banner.

Furthermore, the national government in particular has to suffer from the stage: it cannot be trusted. Climate measures are being imposed, foreigners are allowed to come and work in the country, and there is less and less left for the common man, is the message. When the name of a politician from the Green party (Bündnis 90/Die Grünen) is mentioned, the boos are the loudest.

"The other parties just take things away from us," says a man drinking a beer on a square terrace. "If you are dissatisfied and want to achieve something, you can only vote AfD."

Discontent, crises and unpopular government policy



Part of the AfD's popularity can be explained by this kind of structural dissatisfaction, says political scientist Wolfgang Schroeder. "15 to 20 percent of the people are always dissatisfied. They are against the system, they want nothing to do with the established order. You can win them over as a party with a good offer."

The various crises of the past year have now been added to this: war in Ukraine, threatening energy shortages, climate measures and rising prices. The way the national government deals with this and communicates about it is bad. "Not very happy government policy," Schroeder calls it. "It does not respond enough to people's needs."

That feeds the need for a complete political change. And that is what the Alternative für Deutschland has been promising since its foundation: an alternative to the established order.

Right-wing extremist



The AfD party, meanwhile, is moving further and further towards the extreme corner. The internal security service (Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz) keeps an eye on the party, and already calls some departments right-wing extremist. At a local level, where people often know the politicians from their everyday lives, this does not seem to be a major problem for voters.

According to candidate and carpenter Lochner, it is all nonsense, nothing more than a political campaign by the security service (Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz) against the Alternative für Deutschland. "Those who know me know that I am not a right-wing extremist." In November it will be clear whether he is the first Oberbürgermeister for the Alternative für Deutschland here.

[pieter]

www.npr.org/2023/07/01/1185658053/germanys-far-right-mounts-a-comeback

[pieter]

[pieter]

[pieter]

Comment Pieter: This is a colored video from a Leftwing guy with communist sympathis, but stil this video and the next video are interesting. But know that this is from an East-German and Soviet perspective.

[pieter]

[pieter]

[pieter]

[pieter]

[pieter]

I understand preserving your own culture, integrating and trying to assimilate people, reduce the amount of refugees and migrants coming in and even encouraging some refugees and migrants to return to the countries where they came from, but I can't understand forcing Pork on let's say Muslim and Jewish people. You should be able to eat both pork and kosher and halal meat next to each other. People should respect each others customs and religions. I think this a form of Danish bluntness I do not appreciate and fear that Dutch Far right nutcases or Dutch Social Democrats which turn into Rightwing Populist will copy this Danish example. It is a little effort to serve Halal and Kosher food to Muslim and Jewish pupils or students. That is a sign of civilization, sophistication, a refined society and the fact and reality that in our West-European countries Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindu's, Buddhists, Sikhs, Hare Krishna, Baháʼí Faith people, Zoroastrian, Pagan Heathen faith people (Worshipers of the gods Thor and Odin), Agnostic people, Secular Humanists, Atheists, Mormons, Jehova Witnesses, Scientology Church people live side by side. I oppose this forced Pig eating and burning to Quran in Denmark and Sweden and the Dutch leader of Pegida Netherlands whom tore the Quran apart.


Burning the Qur'an is abject, counterproductive, provocative, dangerous, ridiculous, uncivilized, disrespectful, stupid and ridiculous. I think the police in Denmark, Norway and the Netherlands should prevent this. Burning any holy book is wrong. It is also dangerous because it can provoke Islamist Jihadist Salafist terrorism and so Danish, Norwegian and Dutch authorities should prevent and ban it. I really mean this. Ban burning books in public. It's just primitive, uncivilized, simple and incorrect.



Beginning on May 10, 1933, Nazi-dominated student groups carried out public burnings of books they claimed were “un-German.” The book burnings took place in 34 university towns and cities. Works of prominent Jewish, liberal, and leftist writers ended up in the bonfires. The book burnings stood as a powerful symbol of Nazi intolerance and censorship

Heinrich Heine was a Jewish born poet who became a highly controversial figure in German literature and was also something of a visionary. He quite clearly prophesied the terrible times to come for the Jewish people in a play that he wrote in 1821. In “Almansor” he wrote about the burning of books for political or religious reasons and the line:

“Das war ein Vorspiel nur, dort wo man Bucher verbrennt man auch am Ende Menschen” translates as “That was but a prelude; where they burn books, they will ultimately burn people also”.

[pieter]

[pieter]

[pieter]

Folks,

The allowance to burn the Quran in Sweden was also stupid for geopolitical, strategic and tactical reasons because Sweden wants to enter NATO and knows that the Muslim NATO member Turkey would oppose Sweden’s entrance of NATO due to the Quran burning and due to the presence of PKK people in Sweden. It is a miracle that Sweden 🇸🇪 is allowed in now by Turkey 🇹🇷, really a miracle. It was a close call, and there was and is a fierce resentment and aversion against Sweden 🇸🇪 in Turkey 🇹🇷 stil Today. The Turks 🇹🇷 willl not forget the Quran burning outside a Stockholm mosque in Sweden.

The Kurdistan Workers' Party or PKK is a Kurdish militant political organization and armed guerrilla movement which historically operated throughout Kurdistan but is now primarily based in the mountainous Kurdish-majority regions of southeastern Turkey and northern Iraq.

The PKK is designated as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States,the EU and some other countries; however, the labeling of the PKK as a terrorist organization is controversial, and some analysts and organizations contend that the PKK no longer engages in organized terrorist activities or systemically targets civilians. Turkey has often viewed the demand for education in Kurdish as supporting terrorist activities by the PKK. Both in 2008 and 2018 the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled that the PKK was classified as a terror organization without due process. Nevertheless, the EU has maintained the designation.

[karl]

Pieter

Indeed so, our Europe is changing perhaps for the worse or as a condition of adjusting. What is apparent, is people are tiring of hardships of high prices, bad news and war in Ukraine, for with this, is the lack of leadership in our respective government authority. For they {Authority} appear without answers and people need answers. It is then the far-right groups come in with their own answers for they are as wolves, when a weakness shows up, they become bold with their loud noise, banners and announcing their presence. What is absent, is our leaderships are silent without solutions.

People need to hear from their government of issues and the solutions. For too many years our Authority has acted as bleeding hearts for all the downtrodden people they have allowed to enter as immigrants such as our past Merkel conducted. This was an off the cuff reaction without a plan of action or by the will of the people.

What is currently missing, is a voice to the people from our elected Government leadership, the issues of the day, and what is the plan of action to rectify it by, what is occurring is a loud sound of silence. In this stead, the people are hearing the messages loud and clear from those far-right people with their marches and appealing to the voting folks.

There is a methodology that the late Adolf Hitler used, and that was to spread his voice to all of the people. He out lined the issues of the day and the solutions that were to be used.

We do not need another Adolf Hitler that is for sure, but what we need is leadership that will insure the people active solutions and insure they are completed for the safety of the nation and the people.

Karl

[Jaga]

Hello Karl,

You summarized European problems very well, and also one Adolf Hitler was successful. I am worried like Pieter is of the rise of the right-wing. It also comes from the presence of too many unwanted immigrants from countries with no democracies and little rights for women. At least during my travel to Baltics I saw only one woman in full Burka. I saw muslim women on the cruise but they were participating in normal activities, playing games, eating in the buffet, listening to the concerts. They were also not dressed in burkas but lighter outfits.

Jul 15, 2023 18:04:55 GMT -7 karl said:

Pieter

Indeed so, our Europe is changing perhaps for the worse or as a condition of adjusting. What is apparent, is people are tiring of hardships of high prices, bad news and war in Ukraine, for with this, is the lack of leadership in our respective government authority. For they {Authority} appear without answers and people need answers. It is then the far-right groups come in with their own answers for they are as wolves, when a weakness shows up, they become bold with their loud noise, banners and announcing their presence. What is absent, is our leaderships are silent without solutions.

There is a methodology that the late Adolf Hitler used, and that was to spread his voice to all of the people. He out lined the issues of the day and the solutions that were to be used.

We do not need another Adolf Hitler that is for sure, but what we need is leadership that will insure the people active solutions and insure they are completed for the safety of the nation and the people.

Karl