Now the FDP has the potato salad

The Liberals have helped promote to state office an activist who thinks in ethnic collectives and sneers at the old-established populace. This decision will probably fall on their toes.

Germany’s new “anti-discrimination officer” Ferda Ataman.

imago

Marc Felix Serrao, Editor-in-Chief of the NZZ in Germany

Marc Felix Serrao, Editor-in-Chief of the NZZ in Germany

You are reading an excerpt from the weekday newsletter “The Other View”, today by Marc Felix Serrao, Editor-in-Chief of the NZZ in Germany. Subscribe to the newsletter for free. Not resident in Germany? Benefit here.

The FDP cannot claim that it was not warned. Ahmad Mansour, one of the most fearless critics of the integration problems faced by Muslims in Germany, spoke of a “fatal miscast”. In an open letter to the government factions, the initiative “Migrant Women for Secularity and Self-Determination” criticized a resentful “black and white thinking”. And the former general secretary of the party, Linda Teuteberg, had warned in an interview with this newspaper against a “divisive identity politics”. In vain.

At the request and recommendation of the government factions of the SPD, Greens and FDP, Ferda Ataman was elected the new “anti-discrimination officer” of the Federal Republic this Thursday – a publicist whose previous statements have been characterized more by the desire for discrimination than by the fight against it and who had mostly scorn and mockery for the long-established population of the country. She received 376 yes votes out of 671 votes cast.

Potatoes called Ataman autochthonous citizens, and anyone who didn’t find that funny was a “thin-skinned Emo-German”. Journalists who reported on Arab clan crime at high personal risk were punished by her and her club with the presentation of a «Golden Potato» ridiculed, the reporting clumsily and distortedly attacked as racist.

The more «marginalized», the more valuable

It is not surprising that the Greens, who nominated Ataman, had no problem with this candidate. The identity-political thinking, for which Ataman and her association “New German Media Makers” are almost ideal, is deeply anchored in Germany’s leading left party today. When in doubt, group membership and skin color are more relevant than arguments for the socio-political debate; the more “marginalized” a person is, the more valuable their voice is. At the SPD there may still be members at the grassroots level who are unfamiliar with this thinking, but none of the relevant officials question it anymore.

With the FDP, however, one can only wonder. Why does a party that actually believes in the value of the individual bring a woman into a state office whose previous work has only revolved around the alleged outrages of the collective of “white” Germans?

Oh, not so important: That was the tenor of those liberals who announced before the election that they wanted to vote for Ataman. Yes, that with the potatoes, the many deleted tweets or the equation of the concept of homeland with the blood and soil ideology of the Nazis was stupid. The lady was told that very clearly at a very long parliamentary group meeting. But the office is not that important. Elsewhere, the dispute with the Greens and SPD is much more worthwhile.

It is the language of professional politics that understands decisions primarily tactically: as deals that in turn make other deals easier or more difficult. One can regret that, but a parliament in which the deputies would always vote according to their conscience and without regard to the leadership of the parliamentary group or coalition partners would not be able to work.

A deal for the pros, a betrayal for the voters

But there are limits. The more a tactical decision is at odds with a party’s brand essence and values, the more risky it becomes. What is an unimportant deal among many for the professionals in the Bundestag can stick in the minds of the voters as a betrayal of the matter.

Who knows, maybe the state commissioner Ferda Ataman will be completely different from the author and activist Ferda Ataman. Perhaps not making the mistake of many of her supporters in dismissing the chorus of criticism as a right-wing or misogynistic campaign, she considers the genuine objections. It’s possible, probably not.

If Ataman continues as before, it will not end up hurting her, but the party whose core beliefs are at odds with identity politics. Then the FDP will be reminded that they, too, gave the country this woman in this office. And any attempt by the party to scourge the collectivist division of people into the privileged and oppressed by origin will be met with derision. Mrs. Ataman now not only has her office. She also has the reputation of the FDP in her hands.

You can contact the editor-in-chief of the NZZ in Germany follow on twitter.


source site-111