Cologne, Aug. 20, (dpa/GNA) - A former German minister has warned of the growing danger of extremism and called on Chancellor Olaf Scholz to make stronger statements against the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD).
“I expect the chancellor to speak plainly about the AfD,” human rights lawyer and former interior minister Gerhart Baum told dpa.
Dismissing the AfD as merely a “bad mood party” was trivializing it, Baum said. “The AfD is the greatest threat to our democracy since the founding of the Federal Republic 74 years ago,” said Baum. “People, wake up!”
The far-right party has seen significant improvements in the polls recently, to growing concern.
Baum said others beyond Chancellor Olaf Scholz need to take a stronger stance. “Many more opinion-forming personalities must also show their colours – intellectuals, artists, entrepreneurs and bishops,” Baum said.
“Everyone comes out of the summer break and just carries on as if the AfD’s Magdeburg party congress hadn’t frighteningly shown that our liberal order is under massive attack – and Europe too.”
Scholz may think that the AfD’s current strong polling numbers are a temporary phenomenon. “That is fundamentally wrong,” said Baum. “Pent-up frustration is feeding a group of democracy despisers that has been growing for a long time.”
He said this went beyond discontent with the current coalition government. “We are in the midst of a global crisis of confidence, the likes of which I have never experienced in this dimension,” he said, pointing to growing fear and uncertainty due to the war on Ukraine, large-scale refugee movements, climate change and the conflict between the US and China. “Then it is easy to resort to simple solutions.”
At this point, he said, all democrats are called upon to defend the liberal order and to make it clear to voters that by voting for the AfD they are also putting their own freedom at risk.
Baum also said planned cuts to political education should be dropped and that lawmakers across the political spectrum should defend the domestic intelligence chief Thomas Haldenwang, who recently pointed out the AfD’s anti-constitutional activities.
The AfD is instrumental when it comes to spreading Russian propaganda in Germany, fuelling the expansion of right-wing extremism in Germany, Haldenwang said recently. He warned that while Germany has one of the most stable democracies in the world, it is increasingly coming under pressure.
GNA