All or nothing is his command

Europe is continuing what was a boon after the Second World War: building international organizations in which common interests are balanced and conflicts defused.

Europe would do well to build a world without staring at America like the rabbit at the snake. Here, too, Macron is venturing the furthest forward and making proposals for expanding the EU institutions. Germany hesitates there too. Why actually? It is a good question what Europe should be once the Chinese century really begins.

It takes another seven states

I already know that Emmanuel Macron has weaknesses, who doesn’t. But in a world in which boasters and circus clowns act as leaders of states, a convinced European with big goals and ideas is a ray of hope. Now he’s trying to get as much out of the G7 as possible. That is praiseworthy, this institution just exists. 

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 But this G7 belongs to the last century, when the world was divided into East and West, when Europe was the decisive continent. But world history has moved on to Asia. If the G7 is to be retained, it will have a different composition. Seven is actually a good number. Seven people can talk to one another well, and even have to do so when they are already sitting together. It just has to be the seven from the most important countries. And also the seven correct ones, if possible without jugglers and shell players.

Europe has to make an effort if it still wants to belong to them.

The New Right attacks liberal democracy in small towns and cities where it is vulnerable. The murder of Walter Lübcke is the turning point that forces us to pause. 

In the past few days I have read some remarkable articles that dealt with democracy at the very bottom, the root that holds everything, the source that gushes a lot. Of course, the murder of Walter Lübcke was the reason for the deliberations. In addition, there was the barbaric echo in the social media: these malice, these killing lusts, which even let off steam on local politicians who had already been victims of knife attacks.

Democracy begins down there

What is happening there and what are the consequences? The remarkable thing about a piece that Gustav Seibt in the "Süddeutsche Zeitung" wrote this disturbing train of thought: "Who wants to do this to themselves? Should mayors and district administrators no longer be able to trust themselves to village festivals when they make decisions that do not appeal to a radicalized section of the population?"

I could understand this consequence, but it would be fatal. Democracy begins in the municipalities and small towns; down there it is concrete, even existentially important. Mayors are also neighbors who, like district administrators, almost always live in the midst of their citizens, who like or dislike them as people, vote or not vote; in any case, they are approachable and close to authorities.

Politics is clear and verifiable below

Willy Brandt was mayor in Berlin. Konrad Adenauer Lord Mayor in Cologne. Helmut Kohl Prime Minister in Mainz. Cities and countries are the reservoir of top politicians of the next generation. If things go well, they gain experience and competence down there, which gives them judgment and certainty up there.

I once visited a Mayor of Mainz on his last day at work in office and talked to him for a long time about his time in politics. I was amazed that he hadn’t wanted to climb any higher: not in state politics, which he could easily have done, let alone in federal politics. He credibly assured me that someone like him can at least see what is going right and wrong in his city. Politics is clear and verifiable below. The degree of abstraction is already increasing at the next level, in state politics, and in federal politics it is first and last about power.

Lübcke was not intimidated

I was impressed and thoughtful. After that, I wrote an article about this Mayor of Mainz and suggested to the reader that he should imagine him as a happy politician.

I didn’t know Walter Lübcke personally. Government presidents are political officials appointed by the Prime Minister. They are located on a middle level: close enough to the bottom and flanged to the top of the country.

According to everything we know, Walter Lübcke was by no means intimidated when he was met with the usual anger and lust for murder from the internet. At night he sat smoking on his terrace and probably even talked to the murderer or murderers who came up to him. The neo-Nazi Stephan E. was arrested because his hair flake was found on the plaid shirt of the dead man. So he must have been there on the terrace.

Break in post-war German history

During the interrogations he is silent about what happened in those minutes.format of argumentative essay He does not admit, he will not reveal anyone, the murder weapon has to be found first. Maybe he’ll talk soon, maybe not. Maybe he shot, maybe not. The presumption of innocence also applies to Stephan E. until the contrary is proven. Even if he was in National Socialist circles "Combat 18" wrong where such terror is ideology and method. 

It goes without saying that it is a turning point in German post-war history when it turns out that right-wingers killed a politician for the first time because of his political convictions. The Red Army faction, which formed the military arm of the ’68 movement and which kept the country in suspense for years with its attacks on representatives of the establishment, became known for such attacks. This time we may be dealing with a right-wing extremist terrorist group that can rely on support from a sympathetic scene, like the NSU before it.

Understanding of the hatred in the street

Not entirely by chance, last year a right-wing mob set out to rule a city like Chemnitz for a few hours and expose the authorities. The diversity of the New Right does not start at the top, but at the bottom. Alexander Gauland showed understanding for the free-floating anger at the time. I am curious what words he will find for the murder of Lübcke. For the time being there is only a distancing press release from him.

I like democracy above and below. There is the nice ironic saying: Democracy is the worst form of government, apart from all others. That’s the way it is. It is an eternal process, never perfect, but always correctable in a peaceful way, above and below. It is error-free and willing to make major changes without being forced.

Would I really be smarter than her?

For a change, we should treat democracy with care and ensure that those politicians who practice it practically do what we do not want to do ourselves. They represent us, we want it this way and not otherwise. Occasionally it helps to ask: How would I behave in the position of the Chancellor / the Prime Minister / the District President / the Mayor? And would I really be smarter and faster than her if I were to match her shoes?

Caesuras let you pause. We journalists should ask ourselves a few questions about our attitude. We have the privilege to criticize, which we could handle more carefully. Criticism doesn’t have to mean an eternal know-it-all, it doesn’t have to come in head-shaking arrogance. Criticism can sometimes be cautious and should concentrate on the matter instead of getting personal. And criticism can certainly go hand in hand with self-criticism. To err is human, everywhere and for everyone.

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Often enough we are cocky and tend to be opinionated towards officials because we do not want to understand what prevents them from doing the right thing that we naturally own. In this way, whether we like it or not, we contribute to the degradation of politicians and politics, which we lament afterwards when they turn into contempt for human beings and lust for murder in their despisers.

Democracy demands respect and resource conservation. We owe her that.

The Höcke friends are on the rise in the AfD. Alexander Gauland loses the reins, Alice Weidel changes fronts, a power struggle is raging in the party. What does it mean?

It is only logical that we should now deal with the AfD again after we were amazed at the Greens for a long time. The two parties are opposites that relate to one another but do not affect one another. They are complementary to each other.

In the east, the AfD is on the way to becoming a party between 20 and 30 percent. By reduced standards, one can almost speak of a people’s party. The same applies to the Greens: in the West they are also on the way to results between 20 and 30 percent. They even seem to be catching up in Brandenburg, where they have so far been cancerous at 6 percent. Allegedly because opinion polls should be treated with caution in summer.

On September 1st, Saxony and Brandenburg elect their state parliament. This is an important date that will stir up Germany. The AfD will probably become so strong that a government can only be formed collectively against it: according to the Görlitz model, in which a CDU mayor had to be supported by all other parties against an AfD candidate in order to get into office.

If nothing comes of the way, if everything goes as you can see it today, then the two elections will not just be AfD festivals, but Björn Höcke party rallies. He is the greatest possible stimulus for the new right, which is fraying into nationalism.

Höcke is a time bomb of the AfD

Höcke celebrates himself as a seer, as a feverish herald of great truths, as an ascetic of what is to come: the upheaval, the turning point, the great reckoning with the establishment. When he appears it becomes solemn, the flags wave, the followers hang on his lips, the shawm sounds.

Höcke is a whimsical character from the nationalist family album of the Weimar Republic. He preaches fundamental opposition and condemns all government participation as corruption. All or nothing is his command. All power or none. In Thuringia, where he is state chairman and the third East German election is due on October 21, the AfD is weaker than in Saxony or Brandenburg, which in no way diminishes his influence.

In the history of the AfD, Höcke has long been a time bomb. Does anyone still remember Bernd Lucke? It all started with him: civilly, the euro as the root of all evil. Lucke was looking for a trial of strength when the AfD moved to the right and lost it. After him came Frauke Petry, who first tolerated Höcke out of self-interest and wanted to get rid of it later. The trial of strength sought them too and lost them.

Alexander Gauland served as Höcke’s patron. He said lightly that the AfD was a "fermented pile", just more of a movement than a party, which he really liked: in the belief that the success in elections would round out the bunch, which includes the brown zone with NPD and hooligans, but also the marginalization of the Höcke wing.

Gauland’s AfD is striving for government participation

If Alexander Gauland has his way, in the end the AfD as the right-wing CDU is firmly established in the party landscape. The model is the way of the Greens from the radical left protest movement to participation in government in the federal states and finally in the federal government.

Now the next power struggle is raging in the AfD. In North Rhine-Westphalia, Schleswig-Holstein and Bavaria, Höcke adepts are in charge. They ignore the objections and requests for moderation from the mouths of Gauland and his co-chairman Jörg Meuthen. Anti-bourgeoisie stands against bourgeoisie. Radicalism versus moderation. According to the standards of the Green story, it is as if Jutta Ditfurth and Trampert / Ebermann had taken over the shop.

The tatters are flying in the AfD. It goes haywire. This is normal when a bunch grows out. For the Gauland supporters, however, it is an unfortunate fact that there are elections in three Eastern countries.

The Höcke disciples will get a boost in autumn and derive demands from it. Gauland is 78 years old. His time as an integrating figure of the new right is running out. Höcke no longer needs him as a patron saint. 

Weidel’s method of choice is opportunism

Who is coming to Gauland? Jörg Meuthen is a bourgeois figure, but weak without Gauland. Alice Weidel, who yesterday was still in favor of Höcke’s exclusion from the party, made her peace with him. Opportunism in power struggles is the norm.