Germany is threatened with energy shortages in winter. And a wave of protests. Extreme powers also want to take advantage of this. With Bodo Ramelow, a prime minister is sounding the alarm.
Munich – Something could be brewing in the energy crisis. Especially in his state. But also in other parts of Germany. That drives Bodo Ramelow. “A new Pegida is emerging,” warned Thuringia’s Prime Minister on Wednesday (October 12) in the weekly newspaper The time: “The situation is very dangerous.”
Ramelow alluded to the group founded in Dresden at the end of 2014, which according to its own interpretation wanted to prevent the “Islamization of Europe” and denounced the immigration and asylum policy of the Federal Republic. Some of the countless Pegida demos are said to have had more than 10,000 participants. For some time now, however, the group around founder Lutz Bachmann has been out of the public eye.
Demos against the traffic light government: protests about the energy crisis, inflation, the Ukraine war, climate change
Recently, however, renewed protests involving extreme groups have made headlines. There are many potential reasons for demonstrations: the energy crisis with skyrocketing prices for gas and electricity, rising inflation, Germany’s role in the Ukraine war, or climate change. Kremlin boss Vladimir Putin seemed to want to deliberately fuel these tendencies in a speech on Wednesday.
Demonstrations against the energy policy of the traffic light government have been going on in East Germany for weeks. Citizens in the new federal states are also taking to the streets against the arms deliveries to Ukraine and the sanctions against Russia – probably not only because of the historical proximity of the areas of the former GDR to the former Soviet Union.
Video: AfD demo in Berlin against government policy in the energy crisis
AfD around Höcke in Thuringia: Demo in Gera and speech with Nazi language
Thuringia is in focus in this situation: the state AfD around the parliamentary group leader Björn Höcke has classified the constitutional protection as “proven right-wing extremist”. In 2019, with 23.4 percent of the vote, it became the second strongest force behind Ramelow’s left, resulting in problems in forming a government. The right-wing populists are currently at the top of the polls.
On the Day of German Unity alone, 36,000 people are said to have taken to the streets in Thuringia. 10,000 of them demonstrated in Gera. “Everyone who somehow belongs to the right-wing spectrum gathered there, reaching down to the deepest right-wing extremist milieu,” Ramelow warned.
Höcke was also among the participants. Noisy mirror said the right-wing extremist: “Gera is the beginning of something new today, we are the first of tomorrow.” The second part of the sentence is a quote that ethnic groups used decades ago. The AfD politician’s speech, which lasted around half an hour, was primarily aimed at federal politics, which he accused of “phrasing and feigned patriotism”.
Demos in East Germany with AfD participation: reporters “put under pressure” and climbed to the memorial
A few days later, at another demo in Berlin, even a journalist got into trouble. Because he felt “massively under pressure” from alleged AfD supporters, the “Tagesschau” reporter broke off the switch to the studio.
Holger Winterstein, like Höcke, a member of the Thuringian AfD, also caused a stir. After a demonstration in the capital, he climbed onto a stele at the Holocaust memorial to commemorate the millions of victims and posed for a photo there. He wrote: “The zeitgeist is only a brief phenomenon. Thuringians, Franconia, Saxony, Bavaria, Swabia, Friesians are the people.”
Ramelow on demonstrations: “New fascist movement” could emerge
isolated cases? Or the tip of the iceberg? In any case, Ramelow fears the worst. Activities by groups like the Free Saxons and the Free Thuringians in solidarity with the AfD could lead to “the formation of a new publicly visible fascist movement,” he warned. The understandable fears of the people would be exploited. (mg)
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