75 years ago, Germany was devastated. It had to become a democratic State that would act as a wall against the Soviet Union and at the same time leave behind the Nazi dictatorship, the Second World War and the Holocaust. But he faced the arduous task of creating a new republic in a country that had experienced the Weimar Republic, discredited for having served as a preamble to Adolf Hitler. With effort, on May 23, 1949, Konrad Adenauer signed the Basic Law, a text with which to lay the foundations of a new Germany that would appease its neighbors and in which political violence would play no role. Now, the rise of the extreme right and the dangerous increase in attacks on politicians have made echoes of the past resonate.
This fear was evident in the speech of the federal president of Germany, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, during the central celebration event this Thursday in Berlin, in which the European country also celebrated the 35 years of the peaceful revolution that brought down the Berlin Wall. Berlin in 1989. “If we are honest, on a holiday like today, pride is mixed with discomfort,” he acknowledged from the large stage built on the esplanade between the Reichstag – the German Parliament building – and the Chancellery. Aware of the problems and crises of recent times, he stated that “it would be a mistake to hide our heads in the sand.”
For Steinmeier, the time has come to defend democracy, which he considers currently under pressure. “Right now, the forces that want to weaken and undermine it, that despise its institutions and insult and denigrate its representatives, are gaining strength. Yes, our democracy has triumphed. But it is not guaranteed forever. Others will not protect her. Only we can protect it,” she said before a hundred illustrious guests, including former German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Holocaust survivor Margot Friedländer.
His words come at a time when worrying news is being added day after day. Violence against politicians and public officials, anti-Semitic attacks, hate messages on social networks, great rise of the far-right party Alternative for Germany (AfD), investigated by the secret services on suspicion of extremism and which does not hesitate to use language Nazi, even if that gets them into trouble with the law. Even its controversial head of the European list Maximilian Krah did not hesitate when it came to stating recently that not all members of the Nazi SS were criminals.
“Violence destroys democracy. Sow fear. Sow distrust. Discourages. Silence the people a democracy needs. If you have to fear for yourself and your family, you will not be eligible for political responsibilities,” said the German president. “That is why we must not leave room for violence,” he noted. Likewise, he recalled that the architects of the Basic Law knew better than anyone “how violence undermines a democracy.” “They had seen Germany sink into barbarism. They had watched the Germans destroy their first democracy. How a democracy can die from within if the majority of its citizens do not defend it.”
The celebration takes place the same week in which the Ministry of the Interior and the Federal Police Office for the Fight against Crime (BKA) presented a new and worrying record: in 2023, 60,028 crimes driven by political ideology were recorded, being the acts committed by far-rightists increased the most.
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“Haven’t we learned anything?”, the German magazine headlined on the cover of its latest issue. Der Spiegelwith a swastika below the German flag. For the publication, the 75 years of life of the Federal Republic of Germany reflect a story of success, on the one hand, and one of failure, on the other. “The central project of this country was successful for a long time, but now it is threatened. “How could this happen?” she wondered.
That is the question that sounds increasingly louder in a society that is experiencing an increase in attacks, especially against members of the Greens party, traditionally the target of disinformation campaigns that circulate, above all, through social networks. But also against other politicians, where the serious attack that social democratic MEP Matthias Ecke suffered a couple of weeks ago in Dresden, in the east of the country, stands out.
In this context, more and more experts warn that the lessons learned from German history seem to have faded over the years in certain groups of society, where discontent with some government policies and as a result of various social problems has been skillfully exploited by AfD. The party remains in second position in national voting intention polls despite being involved in a large number of scandals and being seen by almost three quarters of Germans as a threat to democracy, according to the recent survey by the German public broadcaster ZDF.
“At the beginning of the German Federal Republic, 75 years ago, the project was called overcoming; overcome the Nazi era. The new project is now called preservation: preserving the good that has been created,” Steinmeier summarized.
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