Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/09/19/cuddling-with-afd.html
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I had thought Germany was even harsher on nazism than Canada.
Here in the Canadias, nazis have to use all manner of dog whistles and surreptitiiousness to avoid the law.
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So he didn’t actually lose his job. He was laterally promoted.
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They are, due to what they call their “historical responsibility”. However, it seems even that hasn’t made them immune from the resurgence of right-wing populism that’s occuring throughout the West (including in that other bastion of liberal democracy, Canada).
For obvious reasons, there was a time when Germans would have considered it madness to elect a far-right politician to parliament. As of 2017, when the AfD scumbags took 13% of the seats, that can’t be safely assumed.
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has been transferred laterally to a new job as state secretary in the federal ministry of the interior, a job that comes with higher pay – but much less direct responsibility.
Erm. The responsibility isn’t less, even though he isn’t directly in charge of the Verfassungsschutz.
As some newspapers in Germany already commented, this is a dick move in supreme. His immediate superior, Minister Seehofer, has so far not succeeded in turning his ministry around from a conciliatory approach to a confrontation with the chancellor. Unlike in other systems, German buerocrats stay in place when the gouvernment changes. Now, it is predicted that he has an ally in a top position in his ministry, and he will use it to annoy Merkel and further undermine her authority of gouvernment.
This is bad news in nearly every aspect. Maaßen should have been axed, not promoted. Lifting someone from a Nachgeordnete Behörde to the ministry is a promotion.
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I have the feeling that the problem goes back longer and deeper than Hans-Georg Maaßen. (He was appointed in 2012.)
Extremists infiltrating German government May 14, 2008, UPI
The domestic intelligence agency in Germany says in an unpublished report that Communists, Marxists and other fringe groups have infiltrated the government.
The German daily Bild said Wednesday in an unpublished report by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution that the leftist Communist Platform, Marxist Forum and pro-Cuba groups, which the report says are “extremist structures,” are increasing their influence in The Left Party, Der Spiegel reported.
Leftists, leftists everywhere! … and yet they should have been watching the far-right groups.
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Across the world and throughout history, the far right relies upon collaboration from the centre.
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“Maaßen couldn’t be fired outright, so he has been transferred laterally to a new job as state secretary in the federal ministry of the interior, a job that comes with higher pay – but much less direct responsibility”
Yay?
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Infiltration of the gouvernment and infiltration of The Left party are quite a difference, though. The Left always had a heart for fringe groups. Nowadays, they are even competing with the AfD over xenophobic voters. I kid you not.
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Thank you for the local perspective, it’s very helpful to untraveled people like myself.
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I believe it. Lots of “reverse beefsteaks” on the left there who support social welfare programmes but who also think that only “pure” Germans* deserve them.
[* not just in the sense of citizenship or legal residency status]
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I keep hoping there will be videos of right-wing goons messing with the wrong immigrants one day, like a group of Asians who happen to be black belts in taekwondo or something.
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Okay, I’ll say it:
Christ, what a Maaßhole.
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Oh, it does…
Established in 1950 and manned with a cheery seasoning of former Gestapo operatives, given that their main focus for the next 40 or so years was on the GDR, it’s not surprising that their operatives lean rather more to the right than the left.
It is ironic that they were pretty thoroughly penetrated by the Stasi from the start and basically utterly crap at what they were supposed to be doing. Their first head defected to the GDR in 1954.
Equally ironic is that they managed to supply information which lead to the Communist Party being banned in Germany but when it came to attempts to ban the NPD (National Democratic Party of Germany - essentially Nazis.), they were unable to provide sufficient assurances that the activities being relied on to ban the party were the party’s own work and not the acts of BfV operatives.
They were apparently watching the far-right groups so closely that they essentially were the far-right groups.
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Uff, careful. Bavarian CSU is not a far right party!
They are right wing and their leader (and current interior minister in the federal government) Seehofer has tried to be more anti-immigrant and populist than the far right from AfD recently because of their upcoming elections where his party is being threatened by the AfD.
However, in general, CSU is a bog standard conservative center-right party with the usual agenda of such parties (religious issues, conservative fiscal policies, farmers, etc.), nothing extreme there. They have been in coalition with Merkel’s CDU for a long time now as CSU is not present outside of Bavaria. Far right in the government in Germany would be a very different matter.
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For additional clarity for those not versed in German politics, the reason the CSU is not present outside of Bavaria is the deal with the CDU.
It’s a mutual non-competition deal where the CDU stays out of Bavaria and the CSU doesn’t stray out of Bavaria.
It’s a fairly informal alliance (by German standards).
They tend to work very closely together and have so far always formed coalitions in parliament but there are significant clashes in terms of personalities and policies from time to time.
Now is one of those times…
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I dunno, it seems like street battles between different racial groups is pretty much what these folks want. It doesn’t matter who started the fight; a video of a bunch of white Germans getting beaten up* by a group of immigrants gives them the race struggle they’re going for.
*or, if they were Taekwondo black belts, having a board breaking demonstration, I suppose?
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Yeah, valid point. I guess what I’m hoping for, ideally, is a video showing them starting something, THEN getting their asses kicked, so they couldn’t claim to be victims. There’s nothing that will convince them they’re wrong, but we can at least get some satisfaction seeing them get their comeuppance.
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Wow. I wish I could lose my job and go to a higher paying job.
In my experience, that’s not how it goes.
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Just FTR, I know some people who are actually training BfV operatives, and are in close contact. They would say that your description is extremely one-sided and plays into the hands of left-wing conspiracy theories.
I am inclined to believe that many people inside the BfV are actively working against far-right groups, and are in no way suspicious of own right-wing sympathies. However, the general direction of the service is probably shaped by a political bias towards over-emphasising left-wing extremism.
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