The Greens warn against a resurgence of fascist tendencies in Germany — also with an eye toward the upcoming federal elections. Co-chair Felix Banaszak said at the Greens-organized congress “IM/PULS — Forum for the Future” in Berlin: “In 2029 there will be another election, and then in 2033 — exactly a hundred years will have passed since power, rule, and violence were transferred to fascists in silent, cautious, unobtrusive, and then brutally accelerated fashion.” History does not have to repeat itself, he added, but “we can learn from it and we can do better.”
In January 1933 Adolf Hitler became Reich chancellor. In the following months the Nazis consolidated their grip on power. In the Reichstag election of March 1933, the NSDAP emerged as the strongest party, but fell short of an absolute majority with 43.9 percent. A few days later the Reichstag passed the Enabling Act. Hitler’s government could now enact laws without Parliament.
Friedman calls for resistance against the AfD
The Jewish publicist Michel Friedman, who delivered a speech to applause at the congress after Banaszak, said with reference to the AfD, “that we have a party in this country, I will no longer call them right-wing extremists — that is an understatement — and for most people that is a topic as if it concerns minorities.” The AfD is “a party that wants to destroy this constitution.” Its aim is to build again a system in Germany where “people lose their freedom, lose their dignity, lose their humanity.”
Direct link | The speech by Michel Friedman |
The comfortable, indifferent democrats must realize “what they stand to lose if the party of hate wins,” Friedman warned. He said: “The AfD may want to redefine people; we have promised ourselves that in this country it should no longer be politically possible for one person to determine whether another person is a person.” Everyone is urged to intervene, “when a Black person, a Jewish person, a Muslim person, a person with disabilities, a queer person, Roma-Sinti people are no longer seen as people, but instead are defined by their category.”
Ban on the party — yes or no?
Friedman reminded listeners of the possibility for the Bundestag, the federal government, and the Bundesrat to initiate ban proceedings against the AfD. It is not enough to engage the party politically. The argument that one cannot know how a ban proceeding would end is not sound, because “if we knew how a case before the Federal Constitutional Court would end, we would be living in a dictatorship.”
Banaszak urged members of his party to draw closer to people in the upcoming state election campaigns in Berlin, Saxony-Anhalt, and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, offering energy and housing advice or activities that are enjoyable — from a bicycle tour to a karaoke night.
