On ethnic understanding – Maik Baumgärtner, Ann-Katrin Müller, Ansgar Siemens and Wolf Wiedmann-Schmidt in Der Spiegel:

‘The German government has "declared war on its own people,” was the message delivered at a demonstration one year before by Hans-Thomas Tillschneider, an AfD member of state parliament in Saxony-Anhalt. "If we have a government that is waging war against us, then we will wage war against this government. We have come to drive these people out of their seats.” These are just three of hundreds of examples collected by Germany’s Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), the country’s domestic intelligence agency responsible for monitoring political extremism. The 1,108-page report produced by the BfV is intended to substantiate its conclusion that not just individual state chapters of the party is "proven right-wing extremist,” so too is the entire AfD.’

(…)

‘The paper is explosive. In it, Germany’s domestic intelligence authority officially declares the largest opposition party in the Bundestag, a party which received 20.8 percent of the vote in February elections, making it the second strongest political power in the country, to be hostile to the constitution. AfD co-leaders Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla responded with outrage and deplored an "abuse of state power to combat and marginalize the opposition.” The party filed an emergency motion with the Administrative Court in Cologne, claiming that the accusations made by the BfV are "untrue.” Last Thursday, the BfV agreed to not treat the AfD as "proven right-wing" until the court rules on that emergency motion.
A long legal battle will now likely ensue, at the end of which the courts will have to answer the question: Is the AfD, a party with tens of thousands of members, a party with seats in federal parliament, European Parliament and in almost all state parliaments in Germany, hostile to the constitution?’

(…)

‘The Office for the Protection of the Constitution does not believe, it writes in the report, "that it is still possible for more moderate forces in the AfD to reverse the anti-constitutional character of the party as a whole.”’

(…)

‘The BfV argues that the party differentiates between "real Germans” and "passport Germans,” with the latter group viewed by the AfD as second-class citizens because of their migration backgrounds.’

(…)

‘Fabian Küble, a former federal board member of the AfD youth organization Junge Alternative (JA), referred to the SPD politician Aydan Özoguz as being an "Ottoman.” He continued: "In contrast to her, Austrians are always German and they don’t even have to assimilate.” The comment, writes the BfV, is an expression of Küble’s "ethnic understanding” of the Volk.’

(…)

‘Höcke, the head of the state chapter of the AfD in Thuringia, said in September 2023: "We Germans managed to survive the brown dictatorship. We survived the red dictatorship. We will also survive the diversity dictatorship.”’

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‘In early May, Faaser spoke with her successor Alexander Dobrindt. She also informed Friedrich Merz, who was set to become chancellor (and who has since been sworn in). At precisely 10 a.m. on that day, May 2, the BfV issued a press release: "Office for the Protection of the Constitution classifies the Alternative for Germany as a confirmed right-wing extremist organization.” If things go wrong and the courts end up not sharing the agency’s assessment, the new government under the leadership of Merz could blame it on Faeser. She is now an ordinary member of parliament. And hated by the AfD anyway.’

Read the article here.

Where the voters go wrong the courts have to decide.

An unfortunate but probably inevitable heritage of Weimar.

What if the politicians ignore the courts?

See the US.

In the polls the AfD is almost as big as CDU/CSU.

Germany is counting on responsible politicians from all parties except AfD.

We will see how long the responsibility survives.

And who knows, Brexit helped the EU. Maybe Trump will help Germany by trying to dismantle the old order.

It depends on the question, whether the AfD voters like Trump or not.

After Gaza maybe also some parts of Germany could become US territory. The Germans are used to it after all.