Сочиализм Сау Барбарие The Pegida [Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the West, a new anti-Muslim far-right movement in Germany] demonstrations have been staged affairs produced by the media and politicians. Quite small in the beginning, they received disproportionate degree of attention in the press. Politicians from the Left Party to the Christian Social Democrats declared that they understood the justified concerns of demonstrators and offered to engage in dialogue with them. The sizes of the demonstrations were systematically exaggerated by the police and the media. A research group led by the sociologist Dieter Rucht came to the conclusion that at most 17,000 demonstrators took part last Monday, and not the 25,000 reported by the police. The estimated number of demonstrators in Leipzig, the group reported, had been doubled by the police to 4,000. In reality, only 2,000 had participated. There is widespread popular opposition to Pegida. On Monday, tens of thousands of people all over Germany participated in counter-demonstrations. In Munich, there were 12,000 demonstrators, with 10,000 in Wiesbaden and just as many in Bielefeld. Thousands also took to the streets in Magdeburg, Braunschweig, Leipzig and many other cities. The various protests organised by local branches of Pegida, on the other hand, attracted just a few hundred people. Rucht also concluded that the size of the Pegida demonstrations had already reached its high point. Pegida became gradually smaller and thinned out, said Rucht. It is precisely at this moment that the extreme right wingers are now being provided with a new platform to promote themselves. On Sunday evening, Pegida organiser Kathrin Oertel appeared on a leading TV talk show for the first time. The host of the programme, Günther Jauch, gave her ample opportunity to present her fascistic views. She used the interview as an opportunity to proclaim the failure of a light-minded multicultural attitude, criticise supposed preachers of hate in Islamic schools and demand a tightening of restrictions on the right to asylum. The other participants in the discussion were carefully selected. None of them opposed her, even partially. Seated next to her was Alexander Gauland, Vice President of the extreme right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD). Gauland said that Pegida was a natural ally of his party and declared that the suspected terror threat against Pegida represented the beginning of Islamisation. In this way, he identified Islam with terrorism without further comment. Former President of the German Parliament Wolfgang Thierse (Social Democratic Party, SPD) and 34-year member of Parliament Jens Spahn took turns engaging Oertel and offered to enter into discussions. One can talk about all of the 19 points that form the basis of your demonstrations, but first it would be necessary to sit down together, said Spahn. Frank Richter, who leads the state of Saxony’s Center for Political Education, was also invited. Back when the demonstrations were still quite small, Richter had already said that they made strong arguments and called the right-wing extremists concerned citizens, who have concerns about their culture and their city. Richter went on to attack the other participants in the interview for not backing Pegida more fully. He said that it represented a low point of political culture, when politicians did not seek dialogue with concerned citizens. The day after the talk show, Richter opened the doors of the Saxony Culture Ministry to Pegida for a press conference. Bachmann and Oertel were given the opportunity to spread their propaganda in a publicly financed arena. They announced there that they would not continue to demonstrate indefinitely, but said that they wanted to enter into discussions with politicians in order to consolidate their movement. This encouragement of extreme right-wing and anti-Muslim racists is a serious warning. Just as French President Francoise Hollande paid court to the extreme right Front National, the most reactionary elements in Germany are being mobilised to carry out an extremely unpopular policy of war abroad and attacks on social programmes at home. Christoph Dreier WSWS.ORG 21 January 2015
Posted on: Thu, 22 Jan 2015 01:03:57 +0000
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