By “G” in eastern Germany

Nazi saluting Elon Musk appearing on screen at an AfD rally. He didn’t give the Nazi salute there, partly because it’s illegal in Germany.

Introduction from Oaklandsocialist:
Trump and his MAGA movement are part of a global trend. To understand and oppose it we must see it in that light. That is why it’s significant that recently the Nazi saluting co-president of the United States, Elon Musk, endorsed the German party “Alternative for Germany”, known as the AfD. This is a far right party with neo-Nazis in it. Reference here is also made to Sara Wagenknecht. She was the most prominent member of Die Linke, which is a left party that has not really made much headway, partly because of its timidity. Wagenknecht started flirting with the AfD, and there were rumors that she was actually going to join them. Instead, she left Die Linke and formed her own “party” on the basis of economic appeals to workers while also waging a culture war against immigrants, lgbtq people, etc. In doing so, she followed the example of former Nazi leader Gregor Strasser, who combined demagogic attacks on capitalism with anti-Semitism and fascism. Mention here is also made of the FDP/Free Democratic Party. This is a small ostensivly liberal party that also adheres to pro-free market policies. The SPD is the Social Democratic Party, which was historically the working class party of Germany.

Here is “G’s” report:

The AfD was founded in February 2013. Initially supposedly not belonging to any political movement, they have always been elitist and simply adopted the FDP’s programme, took it further to the right and, above all, were not afraid to openly address their nationalism. In fact, they were simply carrying on what the CDU/CSU, FDP, SPD and Greens had been preaching for decades: blame migrants and the unemployed (‘lazy people’), queer people (especially trans people), left-wingers etc. for grievances.

Sahra Wagenknecht was always a special person on the left. I kind of admired her at the beginning, but at the same time she was a bit scary to me. She had a Stalinist odour about her, I thought. Later, I got to know her better and liked her as a really courageous and strong fighter for our cause. This positive relationship didn’t last long. I think it was around 2015 when you hardly ever heard the word ‘socialism’ from her, but more and more often ‘Germans’ and ‘unchecked immigration’. For a while, she was possibly the most popular figure on the left – the most popular among quite large sections of the population, the most unpopular among large sections of her own party. It was clear that she would leave the party, although Die Linke still had plenty of other problems.

For example, why was the most unpopular comrade of all in the party its most important figurehead? Why did the party fail to produce a charismatic leader for over 20 years? Why did only almost apologetically soft-smiling compromise strategists ever (Martin Schirdewan) end up at the top?

Sahra Wagenknecht and her “alliance”

Since Wagenknecht’s ‘turnaround’ mentioned above, I have often noticed that people who, on the one hand, wanted better conditions for workers, but on the other hand were strictly against wokeness, immigration and sexual and ethnic diversity, were particularly behind her. It was therefore predictable that Wagenknecht’s party, the BSW, would not take votes away from the AfD as hoped, but from Die Linke. Exactly what percentage this was remains a matter of speculation, as two other points weakened our party, although there are very different opinions as to which is by far the more important.

One group says that our downturn is due to the fact that we are too preoccupied with ourselves (disputes and fronts within the party). I, on the other hand, and many others, criticise the fact that Die Linke is no longer a genuine anti-capitalist party! It is a slightly progressive party that wants to make capitalism more bearable in small ways at best, constantly seeking to close ranks with the bourgeois parties SPD and The Greens.

One more thought on ‘foreigner crime’. Firstly, and this is rarely talked about, these statistics also include offences committed by tourists – and anyone who lives in Berlin can tell you a thing or two about drunkenly rioting and beating up by Brits. Secondly, a small example: When I moved into this house ten years ago, there were eight people, six of them women. All six women had already been abused or sexually assaulted. Without exception by white men. How many of the women do you think reported the perpetrator to the police? One, and that was me. So 16.7 %. That would be the rate for recorded criminal Germans. And if the perpetrator hadn’t been German, but Syrian, what do you think the reporting rate would have been? Of course 100%! 

Update Feb. 15:
So, just a few weeks ago, Die Linke was at 3.5% in opinion polls, it was lost in insignificance.

In order for the party to get at least four direct mandates for the Bundestag, even if it remains below the 5% threshold, a campaign called ‘Mission Silberlocke’ was launched, in which the three old comrades Gregor Gysi, Dietmar Bartsch and Bodo Ramelow are doing a lot of promotion for Die Linke. In my eyes, this is not a good way to go, because all three stand for left-wing liberalism that is willing to compromise, three old white men in entrenched positions of power.

Heidi Reichinnek

But almost at the same time, a new phenomenon called Heidi Reichinnek emerged. She is young, female, loud, honest and extremely combative.

She has overtaken the AfD on Tiktok, and is the only German politician to do so. She is exactly the charismatic leader we needed. And we are already at 7 %. 11,000 new members in January alone, thanks to Heidi!