In his official speech yesterday commemorating Nov. 9 as a crucial day in German history (1918, 1938, 1989), Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier called on citizens to actively intervene against anti-semitism and extreme rightwing views and organizations. This he said in reference to the anti-Jewish pogroms on Nov. 9, 1938, staged as the Nazi regime was already in power. However, he added that anti-semitism has “always been there” in Germany, but it has vastly increased since October 7, 2023—the start of the Israeli war against Gaza under the pretext of the Hamas massacre that day.
Today, German society and the state are threatened by a tide of extreme rightwing views and hate-mongering, the influence of which is growing, Steinmeier claimed. He thus indirectly addressed the rise of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party without naming it. He said that, short of a constitutional ban, such rightwing and anti-semite organizations shall be fought by a ban from having their members getting a job in the public service, including mayoral positions. Citizens must get involved pushing that in “defense of democracy”—democracy in the tradition of Nov. 9, 1918, when the republic after WWI was founded, and in the tradition of Nov. 9, 1989, when the Iron Curtain fell and the process of reunification of the two German states began.
The Steinmeier speech has sparked a flow of new calls for a constitutional ban of the AfD. The AfD, in response, has attacked Steinmeier for misusing the event in order to ostracize the party, to remove an influential political adversary. Steinmeier is a leading member of the Social Democrats, but by office is obliged to be neutral. His speech, however, reflected the panic in leading political circles about the government’s approval continuously decreasing in ratings, even as the AfD—without doing anything good or bad—has had a constant increase.
