Germany handles its business.
30 second guide to German political parties
CDU – Conservatives (less heinous but they sin in other ways. Socks and sandals are as bad as food banks in my book)
Die Linke – Labour (under Corbyn, proper socialists)
SDP – Labour (between Corbyn and Blair)
AfD – Nazis. They claim not to be of course, but flour that has been sifted is still flour if you catch my drift.
FDP – Lib Dems
Germany gets a lot of things wrong, but putting up with Nazis is not one of them
The last 24 hours have been a whirlwind in the otherwise pretty bland world of German politics. Thuringia, a federal state in the east of the country, held elections in October 2019, and with no clear winner it looked like there would be a minority left-wing government led by the incumbent Bodo Ramelow (Die Linke). At the opening of the state parliament yesterday, a new state premier was elected. It was assumed that Ramelow would win but when it came down to it, and most importantly with the help of AfD votes, the FDP candidat Thomas Kemmerich was elected by 45 votes to 44. The AfD didn’t vote for their own candidate and went with Kemmerich as a way of ousting Ramelow, whose politics couldn’t be further from their own
This has caused outrage across Germany because every party has given an undertaking never to work with the Afd. There has been lots of finger pointing and accusations of dodgy backroom deals being struck between the CDU and AfD (vehemently denied by the CDU). The vote is anonymous, but there is no mathematical way that the FDP candidate could have won without the AfD votes.
The symbolism of this is horrifying. In 1930, Thuringia was the first part of Germany to hand Hitler’s Nazi party real power. It was where they got their foot in the door. The leader of the AfD in Thuringia is a man named Björn Höcke. A man who in Germany is legally allowed to be called a Fascist (you can’t just bandy words around here, there are laws). This result couldn’t have happened in a worse state.
Now let’s look at the reaction to the result: Condemnation ACROSS THE BOARD (or at least in every piece I’ve read), a statement from Merkel this morning calling Kemmerich’s appointment “unforgivable,” which was followed by his resignation and calling new elections. All that in 24 hours.
Of course there are the usual accusations of riding roughshod over democracy from a few lone voices, but I say fuck ‘em. To me, this is a shining example of a country that has learned from its mistakes.
The AfD holds 91 seats in the Bundestag (national parliament). This does not mean however that anybody has to work with them. Actions have consequences. If you’re a Nazi, we won’t work with you. Simples.
What today proves is that German democracy is alive and well. Being tolerant of intolerance only leads to more intolerance.* This is a country that has seen exactly what happens when you give Nazis even an inch.
Of course the AfD shouldn’t even have 1 seat in parliament, let alone 91, which throws up a whole heap of questions about German civil society and disenfranchisement and disillusionment in the former GDR. But I think the way the political class is dealing with the AfD is admirable. Not one inch. You cannot give Nazis one single inch.
Now imagine a similar thing happened in the UK (long, exasperated sigh).
*Karl Popper (Austrian philosopher): “Unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance. If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them. — In this formulation, I do not imply, for instance, that we should always suppress the utterance of intolerant philosophies; as long as we can counter them by rational argument and keep them in check by public opinion, suppression would certainly be unwise. But we should claim the right to suppress them if necessary even by force; for it may easily turn out that they are not prepared to meet us on the level of rational argument, but begin by denouncing all argument; they may forbid their followers to listen to rational argument, because it is deceptive, and teach them to answer arguments by the use of their fists or pistols. We should therefore claim, in the name of tolerance, the right not to tolerate the intolerant.”
