Counter rallies in Kaufbeuren show split between supporters of AfD and locals who acknowledge the Bavarian town’s Nazi past
Counter rallies in Kaufbeuren show split between supporters of AfD and locals who acknowledge the Bavarian town’s Nazi past
Soaring church spires, the 1,000-year-old town centre unblemished by second world war bombing or graffiti, snow-capped Alps in the middle distance – Kaufbeuren, in Bavaria, can count many blessings.
Unemployment is in the low single digits, the Luftwaffe backed away from plans to move its training school for Eurofighter and Tornado jet technicians elsewhere and crime is at a historic low.
However, as voters prepare to elect a new European parliament next month, deep-seated fears have gripped a significant share of the electorate in one of the most affluent pockets of Europe’s top economy and delivered it to the far-rightAlternative für Deutschland (AfD).
The bond between the party and its voters appears unshaken even by a cascade of recent scandals. The AfD’s lead candidate for the election, Maximilian Krah, was forced by his party leadership on Wednesday to resign from its board and stop campaigning after he told Italy’s La Repubblica that the SS, the Nazi paramilitary force which ran the death camps, were not all criminals and could only be judged on the basis of “individual guilt”.
“It’s a catastrophe – the worst government we ever had,” said civil servant Manuela, 55, who was from a neighbouring town and, like most of the AfD supporters, declined to give her surname. She brought her teenage daughter to the rally. Despite the low rates of violent crime, she said her family no longer felt safe on the streets due to “Islamists”.
Anti-AfD activists booed and whistled from the sidelines as Krah addressed the rally. Manuela said: “They call us Nazis just because we’re patriots. The world laughs at us because no country is as dumb as Germany, with our exaggerated tolerance and diversity. They’ve been telling us for decades we should carry this guilt, and so we should rescue the whole world and be its dole office.”
Hey Manuela from paragraph two, you should talk to Manuela from paragraph one.
Manuela or Manuéla is a feminine Portuguese, Spanish and Italian given name. The name is a variant of the masculine "Manuel", which is in turn derived from the Hebrew name "Emanuel", meaning "God is with us".[1]
Yes. But the state still has to prove that what you did was a) a Nazi thing and b) that you either knew or should have known it was so.
So if you show the Hitler salute, you'll be arrested and fined. If you give a speech in which you suggest that immigrants need to learn "the liberating power of work" (referencing the Motto of Auschwitz "Arbeit macht Frei" "Work makes Free") that is totally fine.
The German right wingers usually knew to ride the edge, ie not show illegal symbols or do illegal chants while still making it obvious.
But they’re getting more cheeky because of all the encouragement from Russia, Trump, Musk, etc.
That guy taking a selfie definitely is a so called “Russo-German”, ie a Russian person with German ancestors. Germany (unfortunately) allowed many of these people to obtain German citizenship with no real background check.
Now it turns out that a majority of them love Putin and look down on Western values. These jokers all vote far-right and even drive around with huge “Z” symbols on their 4th hand Audis.
...while they enjoy the freedoms and economic opportunities, and in the case of Germany, high-grade social security of those Western countries they hate so much.
Minority or not, they are a huge problem because Putin is using Russian minorities in other countries as a pretext to invade claiming they're being unfairly treated. That's a separate problem from them being Neonazis, of course, but it adds up.
And they are not only Neo-Nazi followers, but agitators, so they are more guilty than your run-of-the-mill AfD NPC.
It's better we have them put under extreme scrutiny, similar to the other Neonazi groups which are being observed by the authorities.
Calling people that want X but do not see themselves (and are not) anywhere near far right Nazis means that the word loses all meaning.
"I am a Nazi? I guess all the other people they call Nazis are/were not that bad then"