Alternative für Deutschland

By Carolyn Yeager

TWO LOCAL RUNOFF VOTES IN EASTERN GERMANY were won by the Alternativ für Deutschland (AfD), now the country's most successful far-right party since World War II.

Robert Sesselmann won the June 25^th District Administrator election in Sonneberg, a small district in east Germany's Thuringia state. It was the first time a candidate from the far-right party was elected to head a government. A district administrator does not have much clout, but jubilant AfD leaders are hoping the victory will herald far greater political success.

Andreas Kalbitz (left) and Jörg Meuthen meet each other one year ago in Cottbus, an important but depressed city in Brandenburg state.

By Carolyn Yeager

See my previous post from May 16: https://carolynyeager.net/alternative-fuer-deutschland-votes-expel-popular-right-wing-state-leader-party

Andreas Kalbitz announced Tuesday that he was stepping down from the role of regional leader in Brandenburg, while awaiting legal clarification from a Berlin regional court. The Brandenburg AfD leadership had previously voted to keep Kalbitz as their state leader even after he was no longer a member of the party, but they accepted his resignation unanimously.

Kalbitz had been connected with a “far-right” but legal youth group back in 2007 named Heimattreuen Deutschen Jugend (HDJ), translated as 'German Youth Faithful to the Homeland,' which he said he was never officially a member of, but only attended some events. Since that time, this group has been banned in Germany.

Germany's highest court, located in Karlsruhe, in session.

By Carolyn Yeager

GERMANY'S PATRIOT PARTY, THE ALTERNATIVE FUER DEUTSCHLAND  (AfD), filed two important lawsuits on Wednesday against Chancellor Angela Merkel in the Karlsruhe High Court for statements she made back on February 5 after the election of Thomas Kemmerich (FDP) as Thuringian state premier.

Merkel, a member of the CDU party, was on a state visit to South Africa at the time, and publicly called the election “unforgivable” and stated “the result must be reversed.” Within a day Kemmerich did voluntarily resign, and a re-run of the vote ended with the re-election of Bodo Ramelow of the Left (communist) Party, which Merkel obviously prefers to any hint of cooperation with the hated (in her eyes) right-wing party, the Alternative fuer Deutschland.

Andreas Kalbitz since 2017 was a member of the AfD federal executive board. On February 13 it was announced that he - along with Björn Höcke and Hans-Thomas Tillschneider - had been under surveillance by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution since the beginning of the year. 

By Carolyn Yeager

GERMANY'S AfD PARTY VOTED TO EXPEL THEIR BRANDENBURG STATE LEADER Friday over his past connections with an alleged “neo-nazi” youth movement, despite Andreas Kalbitz' denial that he was ever a member. The vote was close: 7-5 with one abstention.

The current co-leaders of the AfD are Joerg Meuthen and Tino Chrupalla. Other top national leaders include Beatrix von Storch, Alice Weidel, Alexander Gauland and Stephan Brandner. Gauland, age 79, retired from the leadership position last year, but is still Federal Parliamentary Leader along with Weidel.

Alexander Gauland, AfD parliamentary leader addresses the Bundestag in opposition to a petition to make VE Day a public holiday in Germany.

By Carolyn Yeager

On May 8, Europe will once again commemorate Victory in Europe Day. This year will mark the 75th Anniversary and some people in Germany  want it to become a “public holiday.”

A petition by a “Holocaust survivor” Esther Bejarano urges President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Chancellor Angela Merkel to proclaim May 8th a public holiday because “This is the day of German liberation and the defeat of the NS regime.” The petition has been signed by 80,000 people as of May 6. Germany's population is 80 million people.

More news from AfD's web page ...

ON MARCH 10, AN ARSON ATTACK WAS DISCOVERED on the car of the AfD provisional Berlin party chairman Nicolaus Fest. The State Criminal Police Office has taken over the investigation. On the same night, a restaurant used temporarily by the AfD for events was also attacked.

Recently, the car of the AfD Federal President Tino Chrupalla was subjected to an arson attack in Saxony. Nicolaus Fest said that neither he nor the party would "back away because of radical leftist violence." He accused the other parties of "inconspicuous smear campaigns against the AfD". While the controlled media in Germany runs stories about the threat of "far-right" violence, the constant violence coming from the Left is ignored.

*     *     *

This current poster reads "We warned about this: Refugee Crisis 2.0!  EU and Merkel must act immediately!  Support the Greeks!  Consequences for Turkey!"

FROM THE ALTERNATIVE FÜR DEUTSCHLAND WEBPAGE, where public statements by party leaders are regularly presented because the established media in Germany ignores the AfD politicians unless they can be characterized in an anti-democratic fashion. The same situation that sends Donald Trump to Twitter! So I thought I'd bring these few to you that I found on their site today. -Carolyn

On March 5th, Federal Board Member Beatrix von Storch said: "Merkel's refugee deal with the Bosporus blackmailer has failed."
She says Erdogan understands only a politics of strength.

Tobias Rathgen, the Hanau gunman, recording a short video that he posted online. He left behind a 24-page “script” detailing recollections of his life and his “racist, sexist” worldview, according to the media. It's been confiscated by authorities and we will probably never be allowed to see it, instead be fed quotes by the media, or possibly a radically condensed version after it's been carefully studied. This man should have mailed it to someone if he wanted it to be known.

By Carolyn Yeager

The recent “shooter” incident in Germany that resulted in 11 deaths is being predictably hyped for all it's worth as an indictment of “Right-wing” thinking. Equally, it is being used as a slamming blow against any revival of German identity and German pride. See how it is being covered on Deutsche Welle, Germany's national broadcaster.

Angela Merkel poses under the famous gate with her Jewish entourage: WJC's Ronald Lauder to her right, the Jewish Prime Minister of Poland Mateusz Morawiecki to her left, and museum director and guide Piotr Cywinski at far left of photo. The white head of Josef Schuster, leader of Germany's Council of Jews peeks over Merkel's left shoulder.

By Carolyn Yeager

IN THE MIDST OF POLITICAL DIFFICULTIES FOR HER PARTY and for her government partnership with the SPD (which just elected new leaders who show little interest in continuing their participation with Merkel's CDU), the German chancellor found time for a seemingly surprise first visit to the Auschwitz-Birkenau memorial and museum in Poland.

She is only the third chancellor to ever visit Auschwitz—the previous two being Helmut Schmidt in 1977 and Helmut Kohl in 1989. This past September, President Frank-Walter Steinmeier (SPD) spoke in Warsaw and condemned pre-1945 Germany for “putting its interests ahead of Europe's” as a whole, saying “Germans must oppose nationalism” and that Germans should not feel they are the “better Europeans.” Steinmeier attacked his own country for what Poland is increasingly pursuing for itself: a more nationalist (Poland First) path. Go figure.

Soldiers of the Israel Defense Force (enlarge) lay a wreath honoring Jewish victims 'of Germany' at a ceremony Sunday that at one time was meant to honor German soldiers who gave the ultimate sacrifice for their country. This epitomizes the travesty of a so-called "Free Democratic Germany."

By Carolyn Yeager

VOLKSTRAUERTAG TRANSLATES LITERALLY AS PEOPLE'S DAY OF MOURNING.

It originated in 1919 as a day of remembrance for victims of the First World War.

In 1934, the National Socialist government changed the name to “Heroes Remembrance Day,” with emphasis on the fallen German soldiers of the Great War.

After the end of the Second World War, under the rule of the enemy Jews and Communists as allowed and directed by the United States Eisenhower-led Occupation Control Council, the remembrance was expanded to include “victims of violence, terror and oppression, including victims of racism and xenophobia as well as refugees,” according to Deutsche Welle (dw.com).