Europe under extreme duress

[sevenhelmet]

I didn’t read Flash’s post as identifying every AFD voter as a neo-nazi. That being said, there are a sizable amount of folks in both AFD leadership and their supporters that lean pretty hard into neo-nazi terminology and positions.

This is just a small sampling of quotes from people high up in the AFD power structure: https://www.dw.com/en/afd-leaders-and-their-most-offensive-remarks/g-37651099

I have a friend (a former chief of staff for a CDU representative) who switched from working for the CDU to the AFD and then back again. His reasons for originally switching were some of the legitimate concerns you articulated. He came back, because in his words, “the AFD is completely insane.”

I think it’s pretty telling that Germany’s domestic intelligence agency has labeled the AFD as a right-wing extremist organization. This party and its rise to power is something that should spark legitimate concern.

Grievance-based politics is a poor platform, whether it's from the left or the right.

 

[Spekkio]

The neo-Nazi part? Both the National Front and AfD have long histories of having those folks as members or associating with them and still have pretty strong strains of antisemitic, racist and virulent anti-foreigner sentiment. While their current anti-immigrant and economic rhetoric is gaining them wider support their histories are far more extreme than any major recent political movement or party here. And with the exception of fringe figures that rhetoric and those links are nowhere near as common here in the US, thankfully.

Most prominent French and German politicians have family members who were Nazis.

It's like, not an avoidable thing.

 

[Flash]

I find it hard to believe 2 million people in that part of east Germany are running around shaving their heads and wear skin tight knee high boots. It’s okay to oppose mass immigration and poor economic policies in Germany. Calling them neo-nazis creates even more resentment. Similar to how moderate Americans were alienated by liberals by the elitist rhetoric during the 2016 election. Both the republican and democratic parties have always had some crazies in their parties, too. Tone it down a bit.

I didn’t read Flash’s post as identifying every AFD voter as a neo-nazi. That being said, there are a sizable amount of folks in both AFD leadership and their supporters that lean pretty hard into neo-nazi terminology and positions.

Exactly what cfam said, many of the voters of Saxony-Anhalt (~576k) who voted for them are certainly not Nazis but unfortunately much of their leadership either has very similar ideologies and/or associates with folks that do, often on the sly. It isn’t too hard to find, even though they don’t dress up like them nowadays since they are usually too smart for that.

While their current anti-immigrant and economic rhetoric is gaining them wider support their histories are far more extreme than any major recent political movement or party here.

There is a very distinct difference between those two parties and our domestic politics, I’ve never described the Republican Party as ‘neo-Nazi’ and like I said before there are only a handful of fringe figures like that here, so far.

It isn’t inflammatory or accusatory when it’s real, and not that hard to look up.

Most prominent French and German politicians have family members who were Nazis.

It's like, not an avoidable thing.

Yeah, that’s not what I’m talking about at all. The current leader of the National Front effectively inherited the leadership of the party from her father, who was never a Nazi but a post-war officer in the French Army. That don’t mean he wasn’t a fan of Nazi ideology, a racist and an anti-Semite who couldn’t stop referencing ovens when talking about Jews. The daughter has just been a bit better at PR and watching what she says on public, usually.



Give me a break, it isn’t guilt by association but a long history of that kind of activity that continues today for both parties. Like the pic above, it isn’t a ‘gotcha’ pic but one the National Front they highlighted in official campaign literature days before Russia invaded Ukraine.