Heiko Specht
Bastian AllgeierThe leader of the German conservatives introduced the idea to collaborate with the far right AfD yesterday. He knows that he won’t get kicked out or replaced as the party leader. He will paddle back a bit after some backlash and that’s it. It doesn’t matter that he just meant on a community level either. The idea to collaborate with Nazis is now officially speakable without consequences. I feel sick!!
If you’ve read all about the downfall of the Weimarer Republic and the rise of the Third Reich and you’ve witnessed all the damage of WW2 in the world and you still reenact history as a power play, I actually think you are worse than the original Steigbügelhalter (stirr up holders)
This course is also pre-determined. You cannot take that path of approaching the far right voters step by step and then suddenly turn around. He will need to double-down, make more extreme claims and offers. There are dark times ahead for democracy.
K'Toche (aime le temps libre)@bastianallgeier I always thought I would flee to Germany if France was turning brown (now that France is turning brown?), But it no longer looks like the right solution. Freaking
@KToche it’s getting harder and harder in Europe to find a place without similar developments
Sara Joy 
@bastianallgeier @KToche Yeah, even Sweden has fallen :(
@sarajw @bastianallgeier yup, that was a surprise to me (but I'm not analyzing what's happening in Sweden, just reading what is "pushed" by people)
@KToche @bastianallgeier I guess what happened in Sweden could happen in Germany too, the far right party got big enough that the right-of-middle parties decided that they would work with them in coalition, after all. So then the rightmost bloc of parties came into power. Until then the Sweden Democrats had been ostracised, like AfD has been... but how long that'll last...
Spongefile@bastianallgeier @KToche Same thing just happened in Finland, our moderate conservatives decided to collaborate with the populists and now it’s been one Nazi references/racism scandal after another.
I had German grandparents, and it is killing me that we don’t remember our European history
@spongefile @bastianallgeier German father and French mum for me. I really don't understand what's going on in Europe (no solid/strong/global reactions from ctr or left parties).
We are millions seeing fascism arriving/installing in Europe, but now what?
We are millions seeing fascism arriving/installing in Europe, but now what?
@bastianallgeier @KToche Good news in the Spanish elections though, the far right Vox party didn’t do well
Kevin Leecaster@bastianallgeier
I just started listening to this podcast from @bulwarkonline with Will Saletan 'The Corruption of Lindsey Graham' and think that it provides a good description on how authoritarians undermine the status quo by getting the people in power to keep compromising until it's too late to come back to the right side of history. https://youtu.be/AY48FI094DM
I just started listening to this podcast from @bulwarkonline with Will Saletan 'The Corruption of Lindsey Graham' and think that it provides a good description on how authoritarians undermine the status quo by getting the people in power to keep compromising until it's too late to come back to the right side of history. https://youtu.be/AY48FI094DM
Ep. 1: The Corruption of Lindsey Graham | The Bulwark Podcast
@bastianallgeier yeah I remember learning about the Weimar Republic in school. A society becoming liberal and accepting seems to mean nothing and it can all fall back to fascism in an instant. It's painful to watch the world sleepwalking back into it.
@sarajw it’s so painful indeed
@bastianallgeier I still like to think we are actually trending progressive still - but that the people in power and their (ageing boomer, largely? I hope?) voter base are stuck in some kind of fantasy version of history, that they're currently digging their claws in to keep.
I guess the danger is that they can convince enough of the younger generations that they are right.
@sarajw The hope for progressive younger voters is something I also try to keep up.
@bastianallgeier @sarajw
I worry about the authoritarian tilt that we're seeing in the young leftists here in the USA especially in relation to climate change.
They feel that democracy has let them down instead of doing the hard work of learning how the fossil fuel industry undermined our democracy, but hopefully during upcoming elections they can be convinced to turn out to vote and we'll make some progress.
⛧⛧⛧J.d.B.⛧⛧⛧@sarajw @bastianallgeier Lot of the people voting for Vox in Spain last Sunday were young voters. Lot of the people voting for True Finns in Finland in the last election were young voters. The far right has a great presence in the social media, especially TikTok. It’s not only boomers, I’m afraid…
@pimeys @bastianallgeier uughhhhhhhh. Guess I'm still deep in my lefty bubble.
Peter Gassner@bastianallgeier It's terrifying to observe. And not just in Germany … 😨
@peter for a while I was naive enough to believe that at least we learned our lesson
@bastianallgeier I feel like so much was done right: laws, memorials and museums, so much education in all the channels. It's just that they found new ways to subvert society, and they always will, and we have to fight back. And I don't know how and that is scary …
Hans van Zijst"Nie wieder!"
Jedenfalls nicht im 20. Jahrhundert...
Jedenfalls nicht im 20. Jahrhundert...
Marcus Herrmann@bastianallgeier Same. He is on a mission to tear down the last walls between his party and the (legally proven) Facists by releasing one testing balloon after the other.
This means either he is unfit beyond recognition for his job, or worse, cunning into a (perceived) position of power, no matter the cost. Or both.
@marcus you cannot tell me that a guy like him doesn’t know exactly what he’s doing.
Andreas Dantz@bastianallgeier so sehr ich auch draufhauen will, aber was ist die Alternative wenn das der Landrat ist? Keine Kommunalpolitik mehr?
@spielundzeug wenn er noch vor ein paar Tagen die CDU die Alternative für Deutschland mit Substanz nennt, nimmt er sich ja schon jegliche Möglichkeit, das so isoliert darzustellen und ich kann auch keine Mühe im Interview erkennen, das irgendwie alles vorsichtiger einzusortieren. Ich sehe da nichts als Kalkül
leChris 
@bastianallgeier @spielundzeug
We can only hope that he has overstepped the mark and that his critics in the #CDU will prevail and replace him.
Quote (translated)
"With his comments on a possible joint approach with the AfD at the municipal level, CDU leader #Merz has triggered much criticism in his own party. Berlin's governing mayor Kai Wegner ... "The AfD knows only opposition and division. Where should there be cooperation? ..."
Source in German: https://www.tagesschau.de/inland/merz-kritik-100.html
@leChris @spielundzeug I would be very surprised if they did, but I hope so too.
@spielundzeug ich denke, dass auch deshalb die Reaktionen aus den eigenen Reihen so ausfallen. Die wissen alle, dass er massiv zündelt
@bastianallgeier ja, gut dass Friedrich Merz nicht ohne Grund aussieht wie Mr. Burns ist auch klar. Ich würde mich freuen, wenn er in der Versenkung verschwindet.
VulcanTourist [MOVED]It's that Paradox of Tolerance again....
Franchesko
Luna Dragofelis ΘΔ moved to @@bastianallgeier They've already gotten quite close in rhetoric and talking points, apparently to try to win back voters.
I hope their open nazi cuddling drives away the more centrist part of their voter base (likely towards the SPD (social democrats))
I hope their open nazi cuddling drives away the more centrist part of their voter base (likely towards the SPD (social democrats))
reindeerphoto@bastianallgeier traurig, aber so wird es kommen.
Jackie Gardina@bastianallgeier I have been to Topography of Terror in Berlin. Unlike the US, Germany does not shrink from its past. Yet it is happening there too. With climate change and the rise of the far right, the world will be on fire literally and figuratively in 5-10 years.
Helle, Queen of Dissociation 
@bastianallgeier Someone in a significant position in the VVD (economic right wing) in The Netherlands has said the same of the PVV....
Though we are seeing some powerful left stuff happening for the next election.
Steffen Christensen@bastianallgeier I'm eternally interested in how and whether the IDU feels about these connections.
alva@bastianallgeier I fear about the future here with the nazis getting big in elections
Fardels BearIt didn't work out well the last time they tried that.
Jake in the desert@bastianallgeier this is insane. And just when I thought Germany and other countries over there were stricter about this and had stronger policies against it coming up- we're having some SERIOUS Nazi issues in the USA right now too, their bullshit hate speech is not free speech and they need to figure that one out. Wish their hateful ideas could finally just be eradicated. All the fear and hate that goes into what these people do, I just can't imagine being that hateful all day long.