Berlin Fears Populists Will Exploit Protest Movement

The Saxony FDP head says that members of his party don’t belong at demonstrations that include people from the hardcore right or extreme left. “Many take part who have grown comfortable in their fake news bubble,” he says. Freedom, though, “is not the opposite of reason,” Müller-Rosentritt emphasizes. “We have to be careful that extremists and conspiracy theorists do not misappropriate the term freedom for their own purposes and reinterpret it.”

The demonstration where Kemmerich spoke was organized by Peter Schmidt, until recently a senior member of a CDU economic council in Thuringia, although he is not a member of the party. In 2018, Schmidt’s company won a prestigious prize awarded annually to mid-sized companies. One acclamation noted that the company emphasizes the integration of foreigners. Schmidt’s company also apparently donates money to help children suffering from cancer and sponsors a cycling team.

“I registered the demonstration of my own volition and did not receive outside support,” he wrote on Facebook in defense of the Gera demonstration. He added that he would not allow himself to be instrumentalized by any party or organization. But if someone shares his views, he wouldn’t “subject them to an ideological examination.”

Schmidt sees himself as a victim, saying he warned that people with competing views were either being ignored or accused of being Nazis. Now, he says, he has personal experience with the phenomenon, but isn’t planning on organizing another demonstration. “It was an honor to me to light the spark, now you have to carry the flame.”

Gera is in Thuringia, and Governor Bodo Ramelow has a large favor he would like to ask of his electorate: Namely that they not allow themselves to be deceived by global conspiracy fantasies, anti-vaxxers, those who accuse Merkel of being a dictator and other delusions. “There are many legitimate questions and misunderstandings,” Ramelow says. And that is completely normal and appropriate, he adds, particularly in a democracy that thrives on a diversity of views. “Speaking nonsense is also covered by the democratic right to free speech. But intentionally misleading people, taking advantage of their fears, inciting them against each other and thus endangering their health is dishonorable, obscene and morally abhorrent.”

Whereas most parties tend to be suffering from the protests, the right-wing radical AfD is ecstatic. Functionaries at all levels are hoping that those who are now taking to the streets, insofar as they aren’t yet voters, will choose the AfD in future elections. Many of the demonstrations are now being registered by AfD members, doing their best to pose as the original corona skeptics in an effort to pull the rug out from under Widerstand2020 (“widerstand” is the German word for “resistance”), the new party that is currently being formed.

“Fundamental Democratic Rights”

Senior AfD members have also begun joining the fray. Party head Tino Chrupalla has taken part in demonstrations in Zittau and in Weisswasser, two towns in Saxony. Chrupalla considers the measures imposed by the federal government to be “totally disproportionate,” adding “it’s no wonder that people are taking to the streets.” He professes not to understand the criticism that has been leveled at the protests. “Citizens that protest are exercising their fundamental democratic rights,” he says. When it’s pointed out that there have been attacks on police officers at some of the demonstrations, Chrupalla says that he knows nothing about such things. But he nevertheless insists: “The interior ministers want to play the police off against the populace.”

Chrupalla is pleased that other milieus can also be found on the street. “The fact that resistance is also prevalent in the center of society,” he says, “should make the government think.” He predicts that the demonstrations will grow, and he isn’t bothered by the fact that extremists are among them.

It is an open question whether the AfD can attract new voters, particularly from eastern Germany. A survey commissioned by DER SPIEGEL found that 20 percent of people in western Germany find the anti-pandemic measures to be excessive, but only 13 percent of those in eastern Germany. In the East, satisfaction with the government’s measures is slightly higher than in the West, which is hardly ever the case.

Saxony Governor Michael Kretschmer of the CDU considers the protests to be legitimate and is at pains to avoid giving the impression that anyone’s viewpoint is being suppressed. The government, he says, was democratically elected and those who have a problem with the anti-corona measures should “be able to express that at any time in a reasonable way.” But, Kretschmer is quick to say, “such a crisis becomes lethal when populists are in power.” As such, he says, he has great faith in people’s restraint.

His counterpart in Saxony-Anhalt, Governor Reiner Haseloff, likewise of the CDU, says it is frightening to see the degree of anger that is present at the demonstrations. But he also says that it in no way reflects majority opinion. The majority, he says, is not pushing to return to normality as soon as possible, but is concerned for their health and are uneasy about loosening the lockdown. Every day, he says, he receives emails and letters expressing such concerns.

The Fury Hotspot

Indeed, the German hotspot of corona fury is not in the East, but deep in the West – in the city of Stuttgart in Baden-Württemberg. On Saturday, the movement called Querdenken 711 (the German word Querdenken essentially means “thinking outside of the box”) brought 10,000 people onto a fairground in Stuttgart. Baden-Württemberg Governor Winfried Kretschmann of the Green Party found the demonstration “extremely unsettling.”

One of the main reasons that political leaders and security officials find these demonstrations so concerning is their diversity. There are, to be sure, plenty of conspiracy theorists, anti-vaxxers and Merkel-haters present, but they have been joined by workers who have lost their jobs as a result of the economic crisis and by single mothers. And, of course, by citizens who believe the rights guaranteed by the German constitution are under fire. Last weekend, there were 70 such marches with a total of around 19,000 participants.

What should be done? Essentially, there are three possible strategies: communication, the rule of law and money.

Friedrich Merz is in favor of taking decisive measures. “Many people can hardly point to an institution that they still believe in,” he says. “For that precise reason, politicians cannot be too defensive. All of us must stand up more strongly to those seeking to attract insecure milieus with crude conspiracy theories.”

By contrast, however, Tilman Kuban, head of the CDU’s youth chapter, is demanding that critics be taken seriously and that measures to combat the crisis be better explained. “I want an open culture of debate,” Kuban says. There are “good arguments” both for the lockdown and for measures to loosen it.

Lars Klingbeil of the SPD, meanwhile, would like to get the authorities involved. “We should not look away from such groups out of fear,” he says. The authorities, he says, “have to take a close look at what is happening.”

Things such as the focused attack launched on Saturday against Rhineland-Palatinate Governor Malu Dreyer. Her Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts received around 7,000 posts that day, including calls to assassinate Merkel.

Dreyer’s team forwarded the most serious threats to the office of the federal prosecutor. “Insults and threats must be addressed by the judiciary. The freedom of opinion doesn’t cover everything,” says Dreyer.

“The Situation Is Explosive”

Ultimately, though, it will likely be money that talks the loudest. The greatest open door to the AfD and to the conspiracy theorists would be the widespread economic suffering of people who lost their jobs because of the crisis.

Those sitting at home with much less money than before, or those who are worried about being able to provide for their families could begin looking around for a scapegoat. The answer that such a person would find from the AfD or in social media channels is clear: The German government and the policies it implemented to stop the spread of the virus. The result could be a further loss of support for liberal democracy.

“Of course the situation is explosive,” says Interior Minister Horst Seehofer. “We have 10 million people furloughed from their jobs, three times as many as during the financial crisis. For me, we are now entering the most important phase for taking the wind out of the protesters’ sails. We quickly need a stimulus program to remain liquid and to save people’s jobs.”

The first laws to that effect have already been passed. The money that will now be spent is essentially the price that must be paid to support our liberal democracy.

Icon: Der Spiegel

Article source: https://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/berlin-fears-populists-will-exploit-protest-movement-a-3a4702b8-6701-401d-b712-6d3e19453a56#ref=rss