Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2024/09/02/the-economist-hard-right-election-win-in-germany-takes-it-into-uncharted-territory.html
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Have an old colleague in Bonn, who emailed me that he’s heard some folks in Thuringia shout in some beer-hall about this electoral success that “the final solution” (die Endlösung) has just taken longer than anticipated. …ff#@$!!! (Fingermann’s postulate: “a third of the populace will always tend to conclude the opposite of the clear lesson of history”)
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The moment I saw this from The Economist previously I had the same exact reaction.
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As at the NYT, the editors at The Economist don’t want to upset their audience of well-heeled capitalists with a hint that the stability of the West might be under real threat from fascism. Better to suggest they aren’t a threat or that they can be controlled.
This is yet another shameful day for post-war Germany.
The authorities could ban the symbolism and slogans after 1945, but too many German households still maintained fond memories of the Third Reich.
My aunt discovered this when, for various reasons, she unwillingly found herself in the company of the daughters of German industrialists in the 1950s.
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Uncharted? Germany might as well be singing the map song from Dora the Explorer.
They charted the shit out of that territory.
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When I went to school, one of the important lessons in civics was that Germany is a “wehrhafte Demokratie”,[1] that its constitution was set up to prevent any resurgence of the nazi horrors by allowing the state to defend itself against unconstitutional forces. I really believed in that as well and still think it’s a great concept in theory.
But the fact that the AfD still hasn’t been banned despite coming so close to having real power in one state[2] has thoroughly disillusioned me of the idea that our constitution is enough of a barrier in the real world.
a fortified or battle-ready democracy, depending on how you want to translate it ↩︎
they will not form the government because for now the cordon sanitaire is holding. But there have been instances of the centre-right CDU in the East playing with normalisation of their far-right rivals by proposing coalitions and only being stopped by the federal party leadership. The dam won’t hold forever ↩︎
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To be fair, no constitution is 100% proof against this, as the U.S. currently amply demonstrates as well. There also has to be a true willingness by the institutions of a liberal democracy to slap down fascists the moment they poke their noses out of the sewer grates, and for people who lived through the horrors the last time 'round to do the same. Otherwise, the Know-Nothing 27% in any given country will start gaining ground like this.
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letter to one of the most read free “blogs” in germany;
it’s not quite that simple. Just look at where the AfD was not elected and where Ramelow still rightly enjoys support and respect. When you consider that Thuringia actually only has three ‘big’ cities - and they are actually more on the level of small to medium-sized cities, it’s pretty impressive: the AfD is particularly strong where there are practically no ‘foreigners’ and all the idiots are stuck. Hence the concern in Weimar, Erfurt and Jena. Here you feel quite helpless, handed over to the knife by the village idiots.
For years, the fascists from Greiz and Co. have been demonstrating here in Weimar on Monday evenings and I always wondered what they actually want here. Now I know. That was the fuck-finger to the cities in Thuringia along the lines of: just feel safe here in your bubble with Papa Ramelow, the elections will be decided in Vogtland, Eichsfeld and Nordhausen. They were right. When Ramelow made a passionate plea against right-wing extremism here at the last demonstration, he did what you get annoyed about in your blog every time people get back to him who think the news is no longer news: he addressed the wrong people, the people who were already impressed by him.
No matter which committee he consulted to get information about whatever, he always asked what he and politicians could do to create a better framework for the specialists. But he didn’t manage to talk to the village idiots, which I can honestly understand very well.
A kind of exodus began here about a year ago: there is a migration at the National Theater (three colleagues went (back) to the West, including the mother of some of my children), as well as at the music academy (an entire department (early music) has disappeared completely, and composition has only been filled on a provisional basis since then), at the Bauhaus and even at the Belvedere music school for highly gifted students. Not only are they no longer able to manage their student numbers, despite the fact that there are perhaps 20% Ukrainians, but now the teachers and staff are leaving too. My eldest daughter has just graduated from the most prestigious high school and apart from 3 guys, everyone wants to leave or is leaving now. In that class, by the way, almost everyone voted left.
When we were at the state music competition in Greiz last year, the performances had to be interrupted because so many fascists carrying national flags and beating drums and whistling in a somber manner kept passing by the Vogtlandhalle that the children’s and young people’s chamber music performances became unsafe. So it’s not so easy not to worry here. There’s always a kind of readiness for violence that sometimes children start to cry.
(google translated)
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True… these modern democratic systems are meant to function on all of us agreeing to a set of shared principles. As soon as some group decides to nope out of that, the system can become unstable. What did Sir Terry say?
“All right," said Susan. “I’m not stupid. You’re saying humans need… fantasies to make life bearable.”
REALLY? AS IF IT WAS SOME KIND OF PINK PILL? NO. HUMANS NEED FANTASY TO BE HUMAN. TO BE THE PLACE WHERE THE FALLING ANGEL MEETS THE RISING APE.
“Tooth fairies? Hogfathers? Little—”
YES. AS PRACTICE. YOU HAVE TO START OUT LEARNING TO BELIEVE THE LITTLE LIES.
“So we can believe the big ones?”
YES. JUSTICE. MERCY. DUTY. THAT SORT OF THING.
“They’re not the same at all!”
YOU THINK SO? THEN TAKE THE UNIVERSE AND GRIND IT DOWN TO THE FINEST POWDER AND SIEVE IT THROUGH THE FINEST SIEVE AND THEN SHOW ME ONE ATOM OF JUSTICE, ONE MOLECULE OF MERCY. AND YET—Death waved a hand. AND YET YOU ACT AS IF THERE IS SOME IDEAL ORDER IN THE WORLD, AS IF THERE IS SOME…SOME RIGHTNESS IN THE UNIVERSE BY WHICH IT MAY BE JUDGED.
“Yes, but people have got to believe that, or what’s the point—”
MY POINT EXACTLY.”
― Terry Pratchett, Hogfather
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Despite having the power to ban the far right, the new Gremany was never very keen on using those powers. The growth of the AfD isn’t a one-off that the state has missed. The Republikaner party, the NDP and the Strasserites of the DSU were all allowed to carry on campaigning as if they were perfectly compatible with democracy. But the laws were quickly used to make sure the KPD were banned.
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Yeah, but the Republikaner ban failed because they were deemed too insignificant to be a threat (quite rightly, as it turns out), while we all know what a shit show the NPD ban turned out to be. None of those were a threat on the level of the AfD, though.
All this time we were told that if a real, systemic threat came along, the state would act. Well, it’s time to act. Past time, really.
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I agree, we should ban the AfD, and at least in Thuringia there is a good case for a ban. Maybe the election result was necessary as proof the party is actually not insignificant.
The only good thing is, for the moment, the AfD can achieve nothing, not in Thuringia, not in Saxony, because they will not be able to form a coalition.
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now it reads
The hard right takes Germany into dangerous territory
The parties in Olaf Scholz’s coalition are crushed in state polls
There’s a mirror at archive.today, It’s really a story about building an anti-AfD coalition.
The AfD’s lead candidate in Thuringia, Björn Höcke, whose provocative flirtations with Nazi rhetoric have landed him with criminal convictions, is not about to take charge of the state. No other party will work with the AfD, in the east or anywhere else (although it may hold enough seats in both states to enjoy a blocking minority, enabling it to obstruct the appointment of judges, among other matters). But the large chunk of seats the AfD now occupies will force the other parties into ideologically garbled coalitions.
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It’s now clear it does not hold a blocking minority in either state.
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September 3rd. Merchant Navy day in Blighty.
I’d say the Charts have been written for this course. The tracks are now entered into the ECDIS and run on automatic, free to use for the whole world
Hi from France where we have the same far right problem, I find it quite dangerous to dismiss them by saying “the AfD can achieve nothing”, it is only a matter of time.
We have the example of the National Front (now called the Rassemblement National) in France, showing that they can gather a majority of the votes and are quite significant, they started as a tiny party and grew when they decided to show a more mainstream facade.
I find it safer to overestimate the threat posed by the far right, rather than consider them too insignificant.
This is a global threat, and Europe once more is in danger, I’ll let the US deal with there own fascists.
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Yeah, as I said in a footnote above, the only thing holding them back at the moment is a cordon sanitaire erected by the other parties. But it is only a matter of time before normalisation kicks in and the center-right feels emboldened to discuss coalition. There will be a public outcry, and they may recant. But then they will try again. And each time it will feel more normal. We can’t rely on social norms and shame as the only defense against the shameless.
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You are correct, they are shameless, the further we advance in time, the less guilt and shame exists in the radical right. The memory of historical events fade away. I can assure you that normalisation has already kicked in France.
The diversity (pun intended!) of the extremist movements is quite astounding, ranging from catholic integrists to neo-pagan new age hippy home-schooler conspiracists, passing through all the shades of shady black nazis to brown shirted normies! Hair length is not a factor of recognition, where are the good ol’ days of easy to spot and punch skinheads!
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Definitely, I’m was to trying to dismiss them, I was just referring to the fact that at the moment the AfD does not govern, and thus cannot decide on policy.
Agreed, the difference between the center right and the far right is not in kind, but only in degree.
And on average, the German population is pretty conservative, 50% of Germans would vote either center right or far right, even though across the country “only” 16% support the AfD.
That is a major source of the problems, because the center right constantly tries to push ideas that benefit the far right. And they are to blind to see that, even though this is really obvious.
In the short term, I think the only chance we have is addressing where people get their misinformation, and using the law where ever possible to stringently ban activities that go against our constitution. I can’t see why we’re not doing that more.
But that is, from my perspective, enforcing social norms, isn’t it?
However in the long run, that’s not enough, we need policy that benefits the people (and the planet) - in short, policy that comes from a left of center mindset - but there is no majority for that. Even if you count the BSW as left of center - which I don’t necessarily subscribe to - they would not get even 40% of the vote.
So what we will get after the next election probably a return to the status quo of the previous administration, the one that was holding back progress for 16 years. If we’re lucky, that is.
A sad thing, really, that so many people vote against their own interests,
The shamelessness that comes with willful ignorance is really something to behold. I’m often at a loss how to even hold up a conversation with those people.
I have no idea what’s up with that in France with that, but in Germany there was also a worrying number of islamist contribution to the protests against Israel’s policy in responding to the Hamas attack. These people also support an extremist ideology that has a pretty broad overlap with the far right - the most substantial differences appears to be the preferred style of beard, and whether or not they condone the consumption of alcohol.
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You are right, I forgot to include them in the mix, but extremes rejoin here too, a circle of sorts, islamics are also fascists. This subject is even more difficult, because, if you start mentioning it, you are immediately dismissed as a racist (quite the irony for someone who’s been fighting racism for the last 40 years)! The rope is quite tight to walk in our days and age.
It’s time to fetch the old “Gegen nazis” t-shirts out of the closet!
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