Berlin (epd). The President of the Federal Agency for Civic Education, Thomas Krüger, has warned against dismissing the election of the AfD party as a protest or as typically East German. That was a trivialization, said Krüger to the “RedaktionsNetzwerk Deutschland” (RND, Sunday) with a view to the election of the politician Robert Stuhlmann as the first German AfD district administrator in Sonneberg, Thuringia. “I warn against seeing the election of the AfD as a protest,” emphasized Krüger, also in view of the party’s high poll numbers.
“The voters want this party, that’s the seriousness of the situation,” emphasized the head of the federal agency. “Parts of society have established certain positions that are incompatible with democratic principles.” The AfD is a “successful radicalization collective”.
Krüger, who himself comes from Thuringia, said that behind the label “typically East German” lies the attempt by non-East Germans to explain the phenomenon. “And this phenomenon consists in the fact that relatively well-off citizens in a very small district are of the opinion that racist, anti-Semitic and misanthropic positions are made socially acceptable by a party that is primarily represented by West Germans and in parts is right-wing extremists.”
He knows many East Germans who didn’t take part, said Krüger. Rather, in many countries there is now “a diffusion of the social center” with negative consequences for parties of the center. Krüger therefore called for “strengthening common sense in the middle of society”.
2023-07-02 08:46:30
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