Germany’s domestic intelligence agency last week classified the largest opposition party, the AfD, as “confirmed right-wing extremist.” This has intensified debates over whether or not to ban the party.
On Friday, the Alternative for Germany (AfD) was classified as “confirmed right-wing extremist” by Germany’s domestic intelligence agency, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV).
Now, there has been a first fallout: two AfD politicians and parliamentarians are not allowed to accompany Hesse’s Minister for European affairs, Manfred Pentz, on a trip to Serbia and Croatia. Pentz explained that he could not expect international partners “to sit down at the same table with representatives of a party that has been confirmed as right-wing extremist.”
Further measures also threaten the radical right-wing party: several federal states want to examine whether being a civil servant, including judges, police officers, teachers, or soldiers, is still compatible with being a member of the AfD.
It’s likely to blow-back domestically. Like other countries around the world, Germany’s far right nationalist party has strong domestic support right now. This may silence some politicians, bit t doesn’t address the underlying issues, nor the reasons that ppl are wandering towards fascism.
My opinion is that general failures of liberal parties to actually make life better, and reduce corruption. People have lost faith.
“My opinion is that general failures of liberal parties to actually make life better, and reduce corruption. People have lost faith.”
They absolutely have lost both faith and hope. Our institutions lack integrity.
I think that is the global phenomenon
Never in my life hage I known people (in Germany, but probably everywhere) to he happy with politics. I would also argue that for the vast majority (again, here in Germany) life has improved over the past decades.
IMO the reason for right wing surges aren’t actual real-world problems or failings of ruling parties (though flawed they are), but the new forms of propaganda and outreach that right wing parties have mastered, and left wing parties have failed at.
I would say it more like “forms of propaganda (lies) that extreme right wing parties are willing to stoop to that left wing parties are not”.
I don’t live in Germany, so won’t disagree. I think that propaganda wouldn’t work if people weren’t already looking for someone to blame.
Germany decommissioned their nuclear plants for being scary with wind apparently being the future despite not having 100% uptime, and then spent a half a trillion dollars trying to generate power when they got cut off from Russia.
While all this is happening they lower barriers to immigration to depress salaries to try to counteract the inflation they caused, then you wonder why people are turning to the right. If I lived there I’d be miserable as well, these people running the country are incompetent. Trying to ban political the party for anti-immigration and trying to link them to the nazi party and is further idiocy, the party was created when Germany brought in a million poor refugees. If Germany managed integration better it would not even exist, there should just be a cap on country of origin like the US has, Germany does have a culture that is worth attempting to maintain.
Here is the kind of comment I was referring to. General distrust leads to propaganda like targeting connecting general incompetence to anger inducing “enemy” targeting.
All of the 1st world rely on immigration to keep population growth - but in Germany it has created an enemy? Here is how the ADD garners support.
No they don’t. They rely on them to meet skills shortages and sometimes use them to lower the going wage.
Killing nuclear was the biggest own goal in political history.
They literally made themselves economically dependent on their worse enemy.
Big brain move right there.
They have strong domestic support because they have been poisoning the public debate with always jumping on migration and inventing stories as well as blowing things out of proportion and the media and other parties playing along. The more politics shifted to the right because of the AfD, the stronger the AfD became.
Their ideas and the way they conduct themselves was normalized, so people approve of it, because they think it is normal and legitimate. If you make it clear that it is neither, it will defuse the far right. Also by banning them, their organizations are dismantled, their politicians thrown out of power and their assets seized.
If you want to stop a fire you need to stop fueling it with self-igniting fuel. Only then can you extinguish the fire.
It’s the same shit as the economist arguing against le pen being banned from running in France. Heaven forbid she and her party broke the fucking law and are being held accountable. They think the public somehow knows better.
Newsflash- we have laws for a reason. Laws without punishment are useless and so is a government that refuses to respect them. They will sow their own destruction with abdication.