Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/08/06/alternative-fur-deutschland.html
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Proof that there’s never ending supply of whackos in the world.
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That Germans with their “special responsibility” allowed right-wing extremists to get anywhere near the levers of power in 2017 is a stunning piece of evidence that correlates the resurgence of right-wing populism with the dying out of a critical mass of people who lived through the darkness of the 1930s and 40s. It doesn’t speak well of humanity in general but is particularly shameful in the case of those Germans who voted for or downplayed the toxicity of AfD.
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This is typical of Germany. Their domestic security and policing agencies have funded the far right huge amounts over recent decades (written off as ‘paying informants’ although usable information was minimal) and both domestic and outward-looking intelligence are lousy with rightwing extremists and always have been. Court cases against the NPD have failed because so many of the defendants and witnesses have turned out to be intelligence operatives.
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Also see the story of how the NSU was able to commit so many murders, bank robberies, and so on for over a decade.
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Schily was appointed as Federal Minister of the Interior in 1998, not 1991.
Germany’s intelligence service has had decades of doing everything from intentionally ignoring the threat of far right terror, to actively aiding it. This is unsurprising that they are helping the rise of the AfD while hobbling a competing left alternative to the status quo.
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You know, somebody could make a good living doing this in the US - advising members of both political parties not to be Nazis, not to support the Klan, and appoint a woman to something. Oh, and gleefully cackling over the plight of the poor is strictly behind closed doors, got that?
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On top if this, AfD’s support is now up in the 12-13% range. This is just below the SPD, which is in second place. “It’s coming home,” in a very nasty way.
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The latest polls even show 16-17% support for the AfD.
If the “punch a Nazi” thread currently being in full swing could spare a hand or two, that would be appreciated.
I don’t know where to migrate to if those fuckers aren’t fought properly.
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Yep. One German spook had to have paid a dead guy for time in an internet cafe without noticing that he was dead, in order to have given truthful testimony.
I rather make this a new post than an ETA:
While a great deal of suspicion is in order, the notion that the current “services” (BfV, BND, MAD) are, in general, right-wing dominated is quite close to conspiracy stuff.
Which isn’t needed. It’s actually rather counterproductive to claim this, because valid criticism can be dismissed this way. The lack of proper parliamentary control and the far too many problems the “services” do, quite objectively, have, are by far enough to demand a radical change.
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It is possible that they are really that incompetent, but their incompetence has a right-wing bias.
Much of what I’ve said can be easily corroborated.
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AfD voters generally divide into two groups, those who actually support the AfD’s goals and those who vote AfD to spite the other parties. In the 2017 federal elections, the AfD’s 13% were apparently approximately 5% true-blue AfD supporters and approximately 8% protest voters.
The AfD should not be underestimated but the implication that almost every fifth German voter is now a neo-Nazi is probably overblown, too. The main observation one can make is that most AfD politicians are full of hot air, and the best strategy would be to attack them on the political level and expose them as the windbags that they are. Unfortunately many politicians here still seem to think it is best to pretend the AfD doesn’t really exist, and that is probably not a good idea.
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This basically. Many people voted for the AfD because they were simply fed up with Merkel and the grand coalition of Union and SPD. I´m not defending them thou. If you vote fascist just to “stick it to them in Berlin (Washington, London, Paris etc.)”, then you are doing it wrong and are pretty likely a stupid person.
So far the AfD luckily fails to deliver. They are a meme party full of wind bags and unless they find a Führer they will quickly dissapear in obscurity again in a few years.
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Be careful, ours did (UKIP/Farage) and now we have Brexit. The real danger is that other parties see their voteshare and start emulating them to pick some of it up.
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Good thing Stephen Miller already has a job I guess
I think this explains Bannon’s publicity tour, though. He’s just looking for the right throne to be the power behind.
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Exactly this is happening. The CSU (sister party of Merkels CDU in Bavaria and member of the government coalition) has adopted a lot of terminology of the far right, especially when talking about refugees. With the current European trend (Hungary, Poland, now Italy) it has to be seen what will become of Germany.
One silver lining is, that there have always been extremist parties from the right with some success (Republikaner, Ronald Schill), that after some time faded due to internal conflicts and a total lack of any hint of competency. Especially when their voters realized that politics is more than marginalizing the weakest groups in our society.
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It’s still a bit sketchy at the moment. According to Die Welt, Maaßen has confirmed meetings with Petry, but denies having advised on anything. Petry denies that there were meetings.
Meetings as such wouldn’t be anything out of the ordinary; the management of the BfV routinely talks with MPs, MEPs, party leaders etc. The interesting thing would be who said what to whom.
Meanwhile, the FDP has picked up on this being potential leverage against Seehofer (as the Federal Minister of the Interior, Seehofer is Maaßen’s boss) and are sharpening their knives.
But this won’t really go anywhere until the end of the month; right now everybody is on holiday. Enough time to get the popcorn ready.
The BfV has been an unholy mess since day one, but on the whole its own incompetence prevents it from being truly dangerous. More of an embarrassment, which, on the other hand, makes it a convenient scapegoat/lightning rod when the Bundesregierung flamingoes up.
Not that this is the way things should be.
Anyway, I’ll keep an eye on this. If there are any interesting developments I’ll post about it.
