Björn Höcke, leader of the AfD in Thuringia, is known for his games with Nazi language. Photo: Karsten Koall/AP
Fascism The state prime minister has warned that this will become the norm in East Germany as voters support the far-right AfD out of protest.
Bodo Ramelow, minister- The president of Thuringia, where the AfD is located, currently polled with 33 percent of the vote (far ahead of any of its competitors) says: «There are people who want history to turn back.»
Speaking at the Elephant Hotel, Hitler's favorite hotel, where he was once greeted from a balcony by a cheering crowd, he said: «There are people who say, 'If you want to piss off Berlin and West Germany, we need to do something really scary. , which will make the whole republic speak – and then everyone will think that the whole of Thuringia is Nazis.”
Mr. Ramelov, Germany's only left-wing prime minister, is a sworn rival of Björn Höcke, the leader of the Thuringia branch of the AfD, who is known for experimenting with Nazi language and being so politically extremist that a German court ruled that it could be call a fascist by law.
Bodo Ramelov, Minister-President of Thuringia: «There are people who want to reverse history» Photo: Jens Schlüter/Getty
He accuses Mr. Höcke of turning the AfD from a party created to campaign against the euro to a party now viewed by German internal intelligence as being held captive by extremist groups.
“The AfD originated as a West German conservative “Professor Party”, and he [Höcke] succeeded in giving it a significant right-wing extremist element from the branch in Thuringia,” Mr. Ramelov said. “But the big danger is not in him, the big danger is that fascism will become the norm – they think they can try it with a friendly face.”
Once considered controversial in the AfD and known for his fan club called the Höcke Jugend, named after the Hitler Youth, Mr. Höcke gradually gained power and influence while skillfully staying out of the national leadership.
G Mr. Höcke caused his first national upset in 2020 when he maneuvered with other local right-wing parties to briefly vote for Mr. Ramelow in Thuringia.
Breaking a taboo
Germany was outraged by the violation of the taboo on cooperation with the extreme right, and the consequences forced Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, Angela Merkel's anointed successor as leader of the CDU, to step down.
Next year Thuringia Probably will be the most decisive state an election in the last 100 years of German politics when the unwieldy coalition led by Mr. Ramelow takes on Mr. Hecke.
Tensions are already simmering in Weimar, a picturesque medieval city deep in woodland that embodies the best and worst of German history.
Bach, Goethe and Schiller lived here. Here Nietzsche died.
It was in Weimar that the Bauhaus school was founded and then expelled by the same citizens who welcomed Hitler with open arms immediately after his release from prison, and then they were shown around the nearby Buchenwald concentration camp, created by frightened soldiers.
The constitution of the short-lived interwar Weimar Republic was signed here, and the seeds of its destruction were planted here when the Nazis won their first state election victory.
A battle for the soul
An arts festival held in the city earlier this week with plays about sex with trees is hardly the battlefield for the soul of eastern Germany that is unfolding today.
To open the festival, artist Günther Yuke laid stones on top of each other, and the names from the book of Buchenwald's death were read in the square in front of the city theater in solemn reflection on the terrible crimes of Nazi Germany, the cornerstone of post-war German identity.
Festival organizers called for a vigil on Monday to protect the memorial from weekly marches by far-right activists.
Mr Ramelov gave a speech about the importance of remembering that the Nazis killed people from all over Europe when a man in wearing leggings adorned with images of hemp leaves, began to shout insults.
“What are we supposed to celebrate when we have a war criminal here? The problem is you,” shouted a man later identified as a convicted Holocaust denier.
“The chancellor's office is the largest concentration camp in the world,” he shouted as he was led away by police. .
Shortly after that, Mr. Ramelow's security team began to act to prevent a large man in his 30s from the stage.
«The CDU are left-wing extremists!»
AfD supporters said they the presence was felt, they opposed the conservative members of the CDU, who were campaigning near the city memorial to Goethe and Schiller.
“CDU are left-wing extremists!” shouts a mustachioed man in his 70s who declined to give his name.
He said he had fled the communist East Germany in 1982 and was outraged by what he saw as the left's takeover of the entire territory. Germany.
“The AfD is the only remaining democratic party. For starters, I want to set up an AfD government in Thuringia. It will turn everything upside down,” he said.
Louis Oberbeck, a 19-year-old CDU activist who was criticized by an AfD supporter, said: «Many people are not interested in discussions, they just shout insults as they pass.»
'Less stable party loyalty «
From -because of the heritage of one-party communist rule in the GDR, «there is less stable or long-established and reliable party loyalty in the east than in the west,» said Heinz Brandenburg, a political scientist.
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This, he says, manifests itself in » greater instability, switching between parties.”
The AfD, he said, is “not just a pool of protest voters” and its backbone of support. in eastern Germany should not be underestimated.
“His voters know what the party is. It is quite authoritarian, anti-immigration and curious about conspiracy theories,” he said.
According to Mr. Ramelow, if the AfD fails to win a large enough share of the vote next year to take power, < /p>
“They want a 33% blockade, which means the abuse and devaluation of Parliament, turning it into an anti-democratic bastion, unable to appoint judges,” he said.
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