CDU politician calls for resignation
Criticism of Faeser for guest post in Antifa-Medium
02/05/2022 8:57 p.m
In a guest article in July 2021, SPD politician Faeser reports on her own experiences with threatening letters from the so-called “NSU 2.0”. The fact that today’s Federal Minister of the Interior uses the platform of an Antifa magazine for this purpose annoys politicians from the AfD and the Union. Demands for resignation are getting louder.
Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser has one guest post for a magazine with connections to Antifa caused outrage in right-wing and conservative circles. The article appeared in July 2021 on the website of the “Antifa” magazine of the Association of Those Persecuted by the Nazi Regime – Association of Anti-Fascists (VVN-BdA for short). According to its own description, it is a “non-partisan association of people persecuted by the Nazi regime, resistance fighters and Antifas of all generations”.
The association is mentioned by name in the annual report of the Bavarian State Office for the Protection of the Constitution. Various other state authorities have been monitoring it since it was founded in 1947, but have since refrained from mentioning it by name. That’s how he looks Hamburg Office for the Protection of the Constitution Connections of the VVN-BdA to left-wing extremist, but also bourgeois actors and, according to its own statement, has only been “subordinate” to the association for several years.
The VVN-BdA is “the largest left-wing extremist-influenced organization in the field of anti-fascism in Germany,” says the Bavarian Constitutional protection report from the year 2020. The association works “on an ad hoc basis” with left-wing extremist forces. Among other things, there is a long-term cooperation with the German Communist Party (DKP).
In the article, SPD politician Faeser reported on her own experiences with threatening letters from “NSU 2.0”. At that time, Faeser was a member of the Hessian state parliament and chairwoman of the state SPD. She will not back down from the threats against her person, she writes. “The fight against fascism and right-wing extremism, against racism and ethnic ideologies is part of the political DNA of my party, the SPD.”
Union and AfD foam
The right-wing magazine “Junge Freiheit” publicly criticized Faeser’s contribution a few days ago. As a result, AfD and Union politicians expressed criticism. The “Bild” newspaper also took up the topic. Among other things, the newspaper quoted the CDU interior expert Christoph de Vries as saying: “How should the employees of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, whose job it is to defend the free and democratic basic order, feel when their top employer gets in touch with enemies of the constitution?” And further: “The SPD is largely blind in the left eye.”
The CDU member of the Bundestag, Christoph Ploß, made a similar statement today in an interview with ntv: “Anyone who does not clearly dissociate themselves from left-wing extremism should not be Interior and Constitutional Minister of the Federal Republic of Germany.” The public has a right to “full clarification of the allegations.” Chancellor Olaf Scholz shouldn’t simply “go underground” on an issue that is so important for democracy.
Ploß described Faeser as a “burden for the federal government”. “If his interior minister wants to continue to sit out the scandal, the chancellor must act and fire Ms. Faeser.” The fact that leading Social Democrats are flirting with left-wing extremist groups shows that the SPD has lost its moral compass. Faeser and the Federal Ministry of the Interior have not yet commented on the matter.
The CDU member of the Bundestag Matthias Hauer tweeted: “A federal interior minister who wrote a guest article for a left-wing extremist newspaper six months ago has completely disqualified herself for her position.” Faeser should “fight enemies of the constitution as a minister instead of supporting them”. The fact that CSU politician Stephan Mayer, in turn, commented on the Faeser cause in the right-wing newspaper “Junge Freiheit” caused social networks like Twitter for criticism.
FDP politician shares against Union
Faeser got support from her traffic light colleagues. FDP politician Konstantin Kuhle indicated on Twitter that the CDU/CSU would remain silent “if the domestic intelligence service was run by a dangerous conspiracy ideologue”. He was apparently referring to the controversial former head of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Hans-Georg Maassen. On the other hand, the Union is outraged “if the interior minister is interested in her office, has a clear set of values and rejects any form of political extremism,” says Kuhle.
The SPD state politician Rüdiger Erben explained on Twitterthat the VVN-BdA is represented in Saxony-Anhalt on the Advisory Board of the Memorial Foundation. The factions of the CDU and FDP in the state parliament decided that – “and it’s right”. In response to the reporting in the “Bild” newspaper, left-wing politician Lorenz Gösta Beutin explained on twitter his solidarity with Faeser. He spoke of a “dirt campaign”. Antifascism is a democratic duty and he is proud to be a member of the VVN-BdA.
Left party leader Janine Wissler called the criticism of Faeser “absurd and dangerous”. The association is an “important voice against forgetting, for commemoration work, against old and new Nazis”, in which those persecuted by Nazi terror are involved. “It would be good if the classification of the VVN as ‘left-wing extremist’ by the so-called protection of the constitution was finally corrected,” she tweeted.
VVN-BdA defends itself and Faeser
Despite some legal quarrels, the VVN-BdA is still listed as a non-profit association. the “taz” quoted Chairwoman Cornelia Kerth in April 2021 as saying that there was no statement from any responsible person in the association that “democracy and non-Marxist systems are potentially fascist and that they should be fought”.
Rather, the association sees the commitment to democracy as “a fundamental obligation stemming from the anti-fascist struggle”. About the Bavarian Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Kerth said that the authority was stigmatizing and not listing facts, but basing its classification on ratings.
The VVN-BdA shares the current excitement about the guest contribution by Interior Minister Faeser statements with: “We condemn the current campaign against Nancy Faeser by the right-wing media and see it as just another attempt to intimidate those who speak out against right-wing threats, fascism and racism.”