Restaurateur feels threatened
Host cancels AfD appointment with Krah in the beer garden
May 11, 2024, 4:19 p.m
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Politicians and those around them continue to face threats. In Halle, a drunk man verbally attacks a Green member of the state parliament. Meanwhile, a beer garden owner canceled an appointment with the AfD’s top European candidate Krah – and justified this with hostility.
A landlord in Miesbach, Upper Bavaria, spontaneously canceled the AfD’s planned election campaign event in his beer garden. When asked, the restaurateur explained his decision due to hostility and constant threats.
The AfD had invited people to “the most reactionary election campaign party of the year” in Miesbach that afternoon. The AfD European leading candidate Maximilian Krah was to appear as the keynote speaker. A local association had invited people to a counter-demonstration in Miesbach with a final rally near the inn. After the cancellation, the party wanted to move to Holzkirchen, around 20 kilometers away, but did not make the exact location public for the time being.
Meanwhile, the series of attacks on politicians continues. In Halle in Saxony-Anhalt, Green Party member of parliament Wolfgang Aldag was threatened by a drunk man at his party’s information stand on Friday. Aldag called the police. The officers filed a complaint against the 39-year-old, the police said. A breath test showed a value of over four per mille. According to Aldag, the man threatened to hit him in the head with a bottle.
“Cruthlessness, even beyond attacks, is obvious”
Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser reiterated that local politicians needed to be better protected from attacks. “It is good that police protection concepts have been increased in many places, patrols have been increased and permanent contact points have been set up for local politicians and volunteers who are under threat,” she told “Welt am Sonntag”. She promised that the federal government would continue to significantly reduce the burden on the states with the federal police in other areas – for example during large demonstration operations, at football games and other situations.
Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner complained about a general increase in aggressiveness, but does not want to change his own behavior. “The brutalization, even beyond attacks, is obvious,” the FDP leader told the newspapers of the Bavaria media group. In his events there are now regularly mainly left-wing groups who no longer want to discuss, but only want to make noise or block. “Or attempt to use stink bombs to make it impossible to present arguments at all.” But he doesn’t feel threatened. “I’m not changing my behavior either,” said Lindner, who is under personal protection as finance minister.
The party and parliamentary group leader of the European Christian Democrats, Manfred Weber, told the newspapers of the Funke media group: “We are experiencing a radicalization in the political debate, which is also leading to violence on the streets.” The forces of the democratic center must now come together. “We have to enforce the rule of law with all the tools we have.”
White Ring sees a clear connection with hate posts
The German Association of Judges called for a change of course by the federal government in the fight against extremism and right-wing populism. Federal Managing Director Sven Rebehn told the newspapers of the Funke media group: “The traffic light coalition talks a lot about the resilience of the rule of law, but does too little about it. Now the Federal Finance Minister is taking revenge for the fact that the Federal Minister of Finance has put the red pencil on the rule of law.” More prevention programs, better education about disinformation online and effective law enforcement are needed to break the spiral of hate, threats and violence.
The victim protection organization Weißer Ring also called for more action to be taken against hate and violence slogans. “Anyone who still had doubts about whether violence on the Internet could at some point also be dangerous to people in the analogue world should now be proven wrong,” said Federal Managing Director Bianca Biwer. “Hate is not an opinion,” she emphasized. “It is our duty to fight it in every form: whether digital or analogue.”
The series of attacks on politicians and campaign workers recently caused horror across the country. In Dresden, SPD campaigner Matthias Ecke was so seriously injured that he had to be operated on in a hospital. Local politician Yvonne Mosler was jostled and threatened while hanging up election posters in the Saxon state capital. In Berlin, after an attack on Economics Senator Franziska Giffey, a suspect was temporarily placed in a psychiatric hospital.