WWhat is happening in East Germany is exactly what was supposed to be prevented in 1949 when the Basic Law was written. A right-wing extremist party is threatening to become the strongest force. This is an emergency, not a drill. A majority of citizens expect that there will be a right-wing extremist prime minister in Saxony, Thuringia or Brandenburg at the end of the year.
Nevertheless, there is an eerie calm in the country. There are no large demonstrations, no precautions, no serious ban debate. The AfD and its voters say this is because the party is not extremist at all. The Office for the Protection of the Constitution is only claiming this, on the instructions of the interior ministers, who wanted to secure their positions, so it is a conspiracy. That would be bad, but less bad than an extremist government – and completely unrealistic.
Do dozens of heads of authorities allow their interior ministers to dictate a technically unjustified and therefore illegal decision and don't tell anyone about it for years? Yes, yes, that works, say the AfD people, because the heads of the authorities are also under the left-green cover, as are the state apparatus, all parties except their own, a broad majority of the population, business, industry, associations, science and the media.
All supporters of a radically different worldview than that of the AfD, which contradicts the argument. Two options remain: either we are already governed by extremists who suppress a democratic opposition, or the AfD is itself extremist because it rejects this democratic state as corrupt and criminal. Both are quite disturbing. So why is there such a somnambulant calm in the country?
The AfD voters are guided by a misunderstanding
Many don't know what else can be done. It was warned, disenchanted, revealed and demonstrated. Nothing helped. Over time, it became clear that voters were guided by a misunderstanding. They vote for the AfD, but openly tell the polls that they do not believe that the AfD will solve the problems.
They think that the AfD's victims are the other parties, when in fact it is they themselves. When the AfD governs, there are no longer any CDU ministers who can be taught a lesson. And right-wing extremist governments are unpleasant not just for refugees, Muslims or Antifa, but for everyone. Experience shows that life then becomes worse for all citizens. In 1948 this realization was still very present.
Some people find themselves thinking that such a shock could be healing. That the AfD will then disenchant itself. But it had already been tried out, “In two months we pushed Hitler into a corner so that he squeaked!” said Franz von Papen in 1933.
AfD politicians naturally consider such comparisons to be outrageous. And the ideological differences between National Socialists and modern right-wing populists are actually great. Nevertheless, it happens all the time that AfD people see Nazis and don't recognize them as such. When their people wrote anti-Semitic inflammatory pamphlets, had themselves photographed at Wolf's Lair with their hand over their hearts, sent pictures of Hitler to chat groups or called for support for an association of Holocaust deniers, party members preferred to believe in an oversight, a distortion or a misunderstanding it somehow works. Anyone who thinks that such people suddenly have razor-sharp and incorruptible judgments in government responsibility is a fool.
Hannah Arendt liked to tell how educated Germans, before the seizure of power, tried to see something meaningful and sophisticated in Hitler's crude ideology. That's what happens with Trump and the AfD too. Anyone who cannot prevent something threatening is simply saying that it won't be that bad. That relieves. That's why you'll hear arguments like this more often.
There is another reason for optimism: there is an optical illusion. The AfD appears calmer and more professional today; its officials have learned from their mistakes. Citizens see this and at the same time hear the increasingly shrill alarm from the Office for the Protection of the Constitution. Both don't go together. Citizens must assume that the authorities are either exaggerating or that the AfD's scandalous events are taking place more behind closed doors. In both cases, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution is required. He must see what remains hidden from the public, but can then not only announce classifications, but also the reasons. Collections of materials have helped in the past. It should exist again.
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