Given the intense focus on antisemitism in Berlin politics, it’s strange that more explicit antisemitic acts highlighted in leaked emails from the AfD are scarcely in the headlines, writes The Local editor Paul Krantz in this week’s Inside Germany.
On Saturday, shortly after this article is set to be published, over 100,000 young adults are expected to demonstrate in virtually all of Germany’s large cities.
The mass mobilisation, largely led by a new group calling itself ‘GenZ Regelt’, can be seen as Germany’s response to the student- and youth-led protest movement that has recently gained traction across Europe – and arguably was already a global phenomenon, with large movements observed in other countries across Asia, African and elsewhere.
But while Germany’s ‘Gen Z protests’ may be similar in terms of the issues they are protesting and their demands, they are likely to be dramatically different in terms of the tactics used and escalation.
Writing this on Friday, the day before the protests actually take place, I’m going to take the leap and predict that Saturday’s demonstrations in Germany will prove to be mostly peaceful – lacking the scenes of shops looted and streets on fire that we’ve seen in France and elsewhere – despite the grave warnings we’ve been hearing all week.
Is there potential for some cases involving property damage, violent confrontations with police, etc.? Absolutely.
But warning about unrest comparable to that seen in France, as some of Germany’s federal leaders and security authorities have done, feels heavy-handed.
Alexander Throm, the CDU parliamentary group’s domestic spokesperson, told Handelsblatt early this week that, “Scenes like those in France must be prevented at all costs.”
Throm made sure to pre-emptively blame the far-left and immigrants for the chaos that he was imagining, warning that people from these groups could “hijack” the protests.
“An ominous alliance is emerging, particularly in Berlin,” he said. Spooky stuff.
But were such warnings really apt? The organisers of Gen Z regelt had explicitly rejected violence.
And Germany has seen numerous large youth-led demonstrations – including recent protests against military conscription and for climate action – none of which have been marked by violence anywhere near what some of Germany’s federal leadership warned about this week.
“Hands off our future” reads a protest sign at a “School strike against military service” rally in front of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin. (Photo by John MACDOUGALL / AFP)
Luisa Neubauer, who has led some of Germany’s largest demonstrations in her work with Friday’s for Future, arguably has a better understanding of what Saturday’s demos may bring than lawmakers in Berlin.
“What exactly happens this Saturday? Unbelievably difficult to say,” she admitted in a statement this week. “I would encourage people to just see what happens, and slow down a bit with the hyperventilation.”
Meanwhile shops near protest areas in various cities were seen boarding up their windows.
German media versus Berlin’s Left party
While Berlin braced for its own Gen Z protest, an explosive story by Der Spiegel magazine, and the response it generated, dominated headlines on Thursday and Friday.
“Elif Eralp reveals fear of terrorist sympathisers,” read the headline to the weekly magazine’s most recent cover story.
To sum it up: The top candidate for the Left party (Die Linke) in Berlin, Elif Eralp had agreed to an interview with Der Spiegel. But by mistake her official statement was sent back to the magazine with notes and comments from the revision process still visible. Reporters jumped on a note in which Eralp had decided not to name an individual due to safety concerns for herself and her family.
“…She is afraid of terrorist sympathizers with contacts to Hamas. Can someone like that be responsible for security in the capital?” wrote Der Spiegel in the intro to its now infamous write-up.
The story is merely the latest in a weeks-long onslaught of front page news concerning the Left party and accusations of alleged antisemitism. Politicians from other parties have repeatedly called into question Die Linke’s eligibility to lead the Berlin state government based on these accusations.
Elif Eralp, the Left Party’s lead candidate, addresses supporters and party members at an election party at the Festsaal Kreuzberg. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Sebastian Gollnow
The view from the other side, however, is that Germany’s mainstream political establishment and media channels are targeting the Left in hopes of derailing their ability to form a government in Berlin, after having won the state vote.
A report by Taz, a left-leaning news outlet, described Der Spiegel’s reporting a “gross breach of trust for the sake of an alleged scoop” and added that, Bild, NIUS, Tagesspiegel and various federal politicians from the CDU, CSU and SPD, even some Greens, have been drumming against [a Left-led government] in Berlin for weeks.”
The reaction to Der Spiegel’s report was also critical elsewhere. On social media people questioned if the magazine editors would even think to question someone’s ability to lead based on the same information if they were a man.
For her part, Eralp said that her decision not to name the individual was not merely a personal decision but was also based on official advice from German authorities.
And then there’s the AfD email leaks
It’s not surprising that stories about massive protests on Halloween, and a scandalous scoop on the Left party’s lead candidate in Berlin dominated the front pages of German news sites this week. These are, of course, very newsworthy stories.
But personally I find it a bit odd that scoops related to the AfD email leaks have not received nearly as much attention in comparison.
PODCAST: Inside the AfD email leak and Gen Z protests come to Germany
I spent a good deal of time this week reviewing the work of a fellow journalist who rounded up a few of the headline stories hidden in those emails. So I found myself at times, reading emails related to former AfD party members who apparently made a pilgrimage to Hitler’s birthplace, and were seen drinking beers around a table covered in a blanket with a Nazi swastika (Hakenkreuz) and SS symbols. And then flipping back to German media news sites where all the current concern around antisemitism was aimed squarely at Die Linke.
In their defence, many of the scoops to be found in the AfD leaks are related to stories that were already reported on, sometimes years ago, when they first happened. So, in the eyes of editors, much of what’s being revealed arguably falls under the heading of context rather than breaking news.
But, if German leaders are truly so concerned about antisemitism, they might want to consider whether their criticism is actually being aimed at the right target.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: thelocal.de
