On June 9th, 2024 President Emmanuel Macron decided to dissolve the French Parliament. He has overseen three months of an hitherto unseen political saga marked, inter alia, by the unprecedented speed at which progressive political forces joined together to build a widely supported program, and by the resignation of the current Prime Minister Gabriel Attal after an unexpected victory of the Nouveau Front Populaire (New Popular Front).
One can question the intentions of the President of the Republic at the time of the dissolution, however, the return of this grenade to its sender places him places him face to face with a challenge and forces him to honour his democratic obligations. After promising to appoint a new Prime Minister by mid-August, Emmanuel Macron is obviously failing to adhere to the rules of the institutional game. Furthermore, the decision not to select Lucie Castets is a mistake in several respects.
First, parties from the left union have all compromised by proposing a candidate who is not affiliated with any party but who is committed to implementing “the entire program, nothing but the program”. Jean-Luc Mélenchon, leader of La France Insoumise – a political formation much detested across the political spectrum – even announced that he was willing not to appoint any ministers from his party. This strong commitment was quickly dismissed by the President of the Republic. This willingness from the left to offer concessions was supposed to leave Emmanuel Macron no argument for refusing to appoint Lucie Castets. That was his first mistake from a symbolic perspective.
Lucie Castets, the finance advisor at Paris City Hall and co-founder of the collective “Nos services publics” (Our Public Services), embodies a broadly consensual ambition within the left and within a large part of the French population. Indeed, the latest reforms conducted during Macron’s term, on the pretext of bringing public accounts back in order, are symptomatic of a policy that pretends to ignore the real causes of economic difficulties. He remains deaf to the claims from a trampled France: that of the Yellow Vests, of the rural districts, of the socioeconomically disadvantaged areas where police violence persists, and more broadly, of all those who suffer from increasing inequalities in a country where unemployed people and care professionals are being denigrated and devalued. By proposing the founder of a collective aimed at improving the quality and access to public services as Prime Minister, the NFP promised to send a strong signal to the French people, who are aware that many essential services such as education and the healthcare are facing a crisis. Emmanuel Macron is therefore also committing a political mistake.
One of the arguments raised by the presidential minority is that appointing Lucie Castets would generate institutional instability, as she would immediately face a vote of no confidence from the right and from the parties affiliated with the presidential camp. However, this potential outcome is not uncommon in parliamentary regimes, nor under the Fourth, or even under the Fifth French Republic. Indeed, the likelihood of cohabitation used to be high at the time when legislative elections regularly took place two years after the presidential elections. A Prime Minister from a relative majority obviously risks being censured. Yet not only is this risk predictable and is part of parliamentary normality, but it is also lesser compared to the risk of institutional blockage: handing over the keys of the executive to a government team logically coming from the majority is key. Indeed, if a vote of no confidence prevents the formation of a lasting government, it at least has the merit of clarifying the political process and allows for running and even introducing social progress in public affairs, whereas inertia leaves no room for achievement. Inertia, that Emmanuel Macron is purposedly maintaining, helps him gain time while issuing decrees to keep ruling against the backdrop of an institutional turmoil,plunging the country into illiberalism.
Indeed that is the last and most critical democratic fault. The President, who is convinced of his legitimacy despite the results of the ballots last July, deliberately capitalises on the deficiencies of the French institutional apparatus. The bad faith with which he disparages the compromises and proposals of the victorious camp while exercising disproportionate power is symptomatic of a biased constitutional order, whose rules allow a super-powered leader to enact unpopular measures and to act against democratic common sense. As Lucie Castets herself summarized during an interview on France Inter last month: “[The President] wants to be head of state, head of the government, and head of a party […] this is satisfactory for nobody.”
Food couriers: victims of harassment and claimed violence
The Lieferando Workers Collective (LWC) has reported harassment incidents against their members, with instances of men dropping their towel the moment the door is opened becoming more frequent. They also reported an incident where a rider was violently attacked while waiting for an order at Burgermeister (a burger restaurant) on Schönhauser Allee. The restaurant staff had said he was not allowed to wait inside the restaurant. The courier suffered head injuries. Lieferando emphasised its support of the courier, and it is supporting an ongoing police investigation. The LWC have gone further calling for a protest in front of the very Burgermeister branch next Friday. Source: taz
BVG: more violent offences than it had for ten years
Berlin’s public transport recorded almost 4,200 acts of violence last year. It is the highest figure for ten years. On average, more than eleven acts of violence are counted per day in underground trains, buses and at railway stations operated by Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe (BVG), according to the company´s security report published on Monday. The total number of offences, recorded in the BVG area was 14,825 – the second lowest figure in the last ten years. Above all, there was less pickpocketing and damage to property: vandalism and graffiti cause annual costs of 4.9 million euros for transport companies – an average of 13,424 euros per day. Source: rbb
NEWS FROM GERMANY
Saxony and Thuringia: success for Nazis
This Sunday’s election results in Saxony and Thuringia have confirmed the impression of an ongoing crisis. In both states, ‘Die Linke’s (The Left) vote share has roughly halved in size; in Thuringia from an all-time high in 2019 and in Saxony from an already poor result. However, the Left Party’s plight is only part of a larger drama. When a party like the AfD performs so well – then alarm is the order of the day. The AfDs politics will not mellow, its development to date shows the opposite trend, becoming more radical. In some cases, it demonstrates open right-wing extremism. Source: nd-aktuell
Election disaster in the east: the ‘Ampel’ coalition and its ineffective communication
The AfD has won a state election in Thuringia for the first time. The CDU came second, almost ten percent behind. Several things are clear. First, the attack campaigns against the AfD has failed. Second, the fear strategy of politicians and the media has not worked. For weeks, disaster scenarios were painted in the event of AfD victories and BSW (Sarah Wagenknecht’s party) successes. Third, the transparent manoeuvres of the SPD and Greens to feign a change of course in the last few days to prevent an AfD victory and a strong performance by the BSW failed to sway voters. Source: berliner zeitung
SPD State president calls for tougher asylum policy
Following the attack in Solingen, Brandenburg’s Minister President Dietmar Woidke (SPD) has spoken out in favour of stricter asylum laws. Border controls should be maintained and possibly expanded, he said at a special session of the state parliament. Asylum seekers from safe third countries should be turned back directly at the German borders. Those who had no right to stay in Germany would have to leave Germany again, including countries such as Afghanistan or Syria. He still called for a ‘similarly comprehensive, far-reaching change’ as the asylum compromise in the 1990s. At that time, the right to asylum was restricted. Source: tagesschau
Germany generated more solar power than ever before in July 2024
Germany hit a record high for solar produced energy in July 2024. “Around 10 terawatt hours of solar power were produced, more than ever before in a single month, even though solar radiation was lower than last year,” said Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) to the Funke Media Group. In 2023, around 57,1 percent of all energy produced in Germany came from renewable sources like solar and wind. According to figures from the Economics Ministry, expansion doubled last year compared to the year before, installing infrastructure capable of creating almost 14 gigawatts of power. By 2030, this is expected to rise to 215 gigawatts. Source: iamexpat
Traffic-light government wants to cut money for ’Dublin refugees’
The traffic-light government (‘die Ampel’) is currently discussing drastic benefit cuts for asylum seekers who are registered in another EU country – known as the ’Dublin refugees’. According to the plans, these people will receive neither cash benefits nor a cash card, but only the most necessary benefits in kind such as accommodation, food and hygiene products (according to the ‘bed-bread-soap principle’), the ‘Bild’ reports. The government also plans on lowering the threshold related to deportation as well as measures against violent Islamism and a tightening of weapon laws with a focus on knives. Source: n-tv
The Last Colony in Africa Fights On
Report from a delegation trip to the refugee camps in Western Sahara in April 2024
In April 2024, an international delegation (anarchists, communists, radical leftists, climate and ecological movements, etc.) of around 25 people travelled to refugee camps in Algeria. The delegation members mostly live in Germany, but some come from Europe, Asia, Africa and South America (Abya Yala). The camp is administered by the Frente Polisario(Frente Popular para la Liberación de Saguía el Hamra y Río de Oro – Popular Front for the Liberation of Saguía el Hamra and Río de Oro) and is officially recognized by the UN. The purpose of the delegation was to learn about the Sahrawis’ struggle for independence against the occupation of Western Sahara by Morocco and to show their solidarity.
The Sahrawis’ struggle for liberation dates back to the 16th and 17th centuries, when they organized resistance against the first Portuguese and Dutch invaders, as well as against the French. The struggle against the French Meharist army from 1912 to 1936, the uprising against the Spanish colonial power in 1958 in Rgueya, Teguel, El Arghoub, Ausserd, Edschera and the uprising (Zemla Intifada) in El Aauín on June 17, 1970 are also worthy of mention.
The Frente Polisario, founded in 1973, fought for the independence of Western Sahara and proclaimed the DARS (Democratic Arab Republic of Sahara) on February 27, 1976 after the withdrawal of the colonial power Spain (1884-1975). As part of the Madrid Agreement of November 14, 1975, six days before Franco’s death, Western Sahara was divided up and occupied by Morocco and Mauritania in violation of international law. Decolonization had previously been decided by the UN in 1960 and 1965. The Frente Polisario put up armed resistance against the occupation.
Mauritania withdrew in 1979. However, a ceasefire was only agreed with Morocco in 1991, after 16 years of war. Since then, 80% of Western Sahara has been occupied by Morocco, while the Frente Polisario controls 20%. Morocco erected a 2720-kilometre-long wall between the occupied and liberated territory, which is guarded by over 150,000 soldiers and contaminated with up to 10 million landmines.
Following a decision on 29 April 1991, the UN mission MINURSO (Mission des Nations Unies pour l’organization d’un référendum au Sahara occidental) was set up with a mandate to hold a referendum within six months to decide on the status of Western Sahara and its independence. However, the Moroccan state refused to cooperate for over 30 years, and faced no consequences from the UN. In the course of Morocco’s occupation, many inhabitants of Western Sahara have been displaced. A large number of these refugees (around 150,000 to 200,000) are now living in five self-managed camps near the Algerian city of Tindouf. After Morocco broke the ceasefire agreements in November 2020, the Frente Polisario resumed armed resistance against the occupation.
Our delegation was hosted by families in the Smara refugee camp. Our group’s daily programme consisted of visits to various political and cultural organizations, like the youth organization UJSARIO, as well as to self-governing structures of the camps, clinics, government institutions, the University of Tifariti, the Simon Bolivar School, the journalists’ association UPES, human rights organizations, libraries, museums and the women’s organization UNMS.
The visit to the Sahrawi Red Crescent food depot documented the daily dependence on UN aid deliveries – which recently received a 20% cut to the total budget.
Due to the extreme living conditions in the desert (which can reach up to 50 degrees in the summer), growing food is extremely difficult and there is high dependence on the UN’s WFP (World Food Program), which mainly supplies rice, flour, sugar and oil, but hardly any vegetables or fruit. There have already been two major shortages, and in 2008 there were more serious hunger problems. Around 87% of the camp residents suffer from iron deficiency, and 11% have severe iron deficiency due to an unbalanced diet. In addition, 7 to 10% of children under the age of six have been diagnosed with malnutrition. The UN and the international community are partly responsible for this, as they are cutting food budgets and failing to improve the precarious supply situation.
The visits to CONASADH (La Comisión Nacional Saharaui de Derechos Humanos – The National Sahrawi Human Rights Commission) and AFAPREDESA (Asociación de Familiares de Presos y Desaparecidos Saharauis – Association of Families of Sahrawi Prisoners and Disappeared Persons) made us understand the massive human rights violations committed by the Moroccan government against Sahrawi activists.
The result is a total of around 30,000 political prisoners and detainees, arrested between 1975 to 2024. Of those, 46 are currently political prisoners, 90% of whom are in Moroccan prisons. There have also been around 4,500 disappearances (with over 500 from 1975 to 1977 alone), 445 of whom are still being sought today. This is all in addition to torture, arrests, interrogations, attacks and the prevention of demonstrations.
The uncovering of mass graves of murdered Sahrawis during the 1976-1991 war is an important part of the documentation work. In 2013, a Basque association also provided support in the exhumation and subsequent re-entombment of bones found.
Of the 15 mass graves discovered so far, some were also located in tourist centers.
Since 2020, the Moroccan army has carried out massive drone attacks on the civilian population in the liberated area, which have so far led to a number of deaths (at least 89 as of April 2024). As a result, many of the approximately 20,000 to 30,000 people living there have been displaced – most of whom have fled to the camps.
In addition, there are victims of landmines buried by the Moroccan army along the 2720 km long wall, which explode when they are stepped on. 2,600 of these victims live in the camps and some organizations support them with prostheses.
AFAPREDESA, which was founded in 1989, is banned in the Moroccan-occupied Western Sahara and operates clandestinely there. It has over 700 members and is supported in particular by women, who make up the majority of the organization and do most of the work. A clear criticism was voiced about the inactivity of the Red Cross, with which there has been hardly any contact after the discovery of new mass graves in 2013.
The Red Cross, which is also represented in the camps, does not stand up for the Sahrawi political prisoners, for whom the situation is particularly difficult. All of them are in poor health, many suffer from kidney and heart problems or rashes, and many are mistreated and tortured. They have no access to education, health care or contact with their family members. For all these reasons, there have already been several hunger strikes by prisoners, and international support has so far been minimal.
The meeting with the women’s organization UNMS (Union Nacional de Mujeres Saharauis – National Union of Sahrawi Women), which was founded in 1974 and has over 10,000 members, underlines the immense importance of independent women’s organizations. The camp structures were largely set up by women and are still managed by them in central positions today. The UNMS is active in four areas: in occupied Western Sahara, liberated Western Sahara, Algeria and the Sahrawi diaspora. It’s organized in a national congress that elects 66 women as representatives at regular intervals and is involved in various subject areas.
Women who were involved in the armed struggle before 1991 and are part of the liberation army of the Frente Polisario are today at the forefront of the resistance, especially in the occupied part of Western Sahara. They make up 42% of the delegates in the national congress, the highest proportion in the entirety of Africa.
They are also represented in the Socialist International, the African Women’s Association, the Pan-African Congress and other anti-fascist and anti-imperialist organizations. In every Wilaya (camp town) there is a women’s shelter. However, according to one of the women we interviewed, “there are still macho ideas or a way of thinking”. Compared to other countries, however, the number of cases of violence against women is lower. Internalized gender roles, such as in housework, are also a problem. After this meeting and with other organized women, it became clear to all of us that it is the women who play the central role in the social and political self-administration structure of all 5 refugee camps. Special respect was paid to the Kurdish women in the armed struggle as an expression of international solidarity.
A central point of the visit was the Resistance Museum, which took us through the history of the resistance and liberation struggle against the colonial occupations of Spain and Morocco. The captured Moroccan army war material on display was produced by Germany, and in the last ten years, Germany has supplied armaments worth over 200 million euros. These include surveillance technology (ground radar) for border security, unmanned aerial vehicles, on-board weapon control systems, parts for cannon ammunition and communications technology. Arms exports from Germany, the EU and the USA contribute significantly to the maintenance of the occupation by Morocco.
The on-site visit to SMACO (Sahrawi Mine Action Coordination Office) also showed us the involvement of international companies in the production and supply of drones. Drones used by the Moroccan army and their technology come from Israel (e.g. from the Elbit group), Turkey, the UAE, China, the USA and also Germany. The TB2-Bayraktar drone from Turkey, which is also used in Kurdistan, flies with electro-optical sensors and laser technology from a German company (Hensoldt in Taufkirchen) as well as with laser-guided missiles based on warheads supplied by TDW Wirksysteme GmbH from Schrobenhausen.
However, German companies such as Siemens, HeidelbergCement (Materials), Thyssen-Krupp and others are also involved in exploitation through the extraction and supply of raw materials, energy production and economic cooperation with the occupying regime in Morocco. Siemens supplied and installed 22 wind turbines for the 50 MW Foum el Oued wind farm, which came online in occupied Western Sahara in 2013. Thysen-Krupp is involved in phosphate mining and HeidelbergCement is involved in two cement factories via a Moroccan subsidiary (Cimenst du Maroc). More detailed information on the involvement of German and European companies in the exploitation of Western Sahara can be found on the website of the organization Western Sahara Resource Watch.
Finally, we were able to conduct a series of interesting interviews, including with Embarka Bumajruta, one of the founders of the Frente Polisario, and with Elghalia Djimi, human rights activist and former political prisoner in Western Sahara, which we will publish at a later date.
After the trip, some took part in the annual FiSahara International Film Festival in Wilaya Ausserd. The prizes at this year’s festival under the motto ‘resistir es vencer (to resist is to win)’ went to the Palestinian feature film 200 Meters, the documentary Insumisas about women’s resistance in the Western Sahara and Igualada about the Afro-Colombian activist and politician Francia Márquez.
The existence of the camps since 1975 and life under the most adverse conditions made us permanently aware of the forced expulsion of the Sahrawi population by the Moroccan state. We experienced an unbroken will to return and desire for liberation from the occupation. We heard daily that life in exile was only temporary and that the resistance would continue until the liberation of Western Sahara.
As internationalists, we must support this resistance with all the means at our disposal. We must also denounce and fight colonial imperialist structures, as well as state governments and multinational corporations both here in Germany and the EU that profit from the occupation of Morocco and thus enable and maintain it.
We stand for the process of decolonization worldwide.
Freedom for Western Sahara, freedom for Palestine, freedom for Kurdistan, freedom for Kanaky.
Freedom for all those oppressed and condemned by colonization in this world.
In 2020, The Left Berlin reported on the threat to Moabit’s “comfort woman” statue, also known as the Peace Statue or ‘Ari’, after Stephan von Dassel, then mayor of Berlin-Mitte, ordered its removal following pressure from the Japanese government. We also interviewed affected Japanese and Korean activists about what the statue, which commemorates East Asian victims of sexual violence during the Second World War, meant to them.
A lively campaign saved the statue, which you can still visit at the corner of Bremerstraße and Birkenstraße. But it is under threat once more after Berlin’s mayor Kai Wegner (CDU) announced in May that the Peace Statue would be removed.
On August 3rd, Berlin-Brandenburg Broadcasting (RBB) published a report entitled Funding of Project on Sexualized Violence Fails Due to Political Interference. The report explained how women and children, primarily from Korea and China, were referred to as “comfort women” as an attempt to hide the fact that they were, in fact, forced into sexual slavery. Up to 200,000 women and girls were sent to so-called “comfort stations” where they were raped several times every day.
As a result of the funding rejection, the Korea Verband will also no longer be able to continue its youth education project “Sit Next to Me!”, which has been running for three years. This project aims to educate young people about sexual violence in wartime by focusing on the history of the Japanese military’s “comfort women” and the movement surrounding the Peace Statue, while also drawing connections to unresolved historical issues in Germany.
RBB talked to Nataly Jung-Hwa Han from Berlin’s Korea Verband about the project, quoting her as saying: “what the project meant for us is empowerment, because the comfort women have broken the silence.”
RBB says that it has compelling evidence that the Korea Verband’s application for funding from the Berlin Project Fund for Cultural Education was rejected due to direct intervention by Kai Wegner because he feared a conflict with the Japanese government.
For its part, the Japanese embassy invited several members of the funding panel to a meal in a five star hotel to attempt to encourage them to vote against the educational project behind the statue. After the panel decided to fund the project anyway, Wegner intervened. The statue should now be removed at the end of September.
Civil society worldwide has expressed deep regret over the findings of the RBB report. There is great disappointment that this initiative was derailed by political intervention after the curriculum had already been coordinated with several schools and was ready for implementation. There is also outrage that the decades-long work of the Korea Verband has been suppressed without its contribution to German society being acknowledged.
Concern grows following the victory of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) in the Berlin municipal elections, as support has been withdrawn from the Korea Verband and other organizations primarily run by those with migration backgrounds. This situation has raised fears that Germany and Japan, the two Axis powers of World War II, could be returning to the past.
Protest Rally
As a response to Wegner’s interference, the initiative “People at the Statue of Peace” are organizing another protest rally “Erinnerung [Memories] for Sale!?” at Neptunenbrunnen near Alexanderplatz. The rally is protesting against the political interference of the Berlin Mayor in the Korea Verband’s application for funding for an educational project on gender-based violence.
The organizers of the rally join the voices of global civil society in calling on the German government to recognize that the issue of the Japanese military’s “comfort women” is a serious human rights violation, representing a continuation of colonialism and the oppression of women, and to no longer support the Japanese government’s efforts to deny and revise history.
The protest demands the following:
Preservation of the Statue of Peace, Ari: The Statue of Peace must stay! Despite broad support from civil society and the positive decisions of the District Assembly (BVV), the statue is still under threat. District Mayor Stefanie Remlinger has stated that there is no legal basis for preserving the statue, but we insist that the voice of the victims of sexualized violence and the citizens of Berlin must be heard.
Protecting democracy and the culture of remembrance: It is unacceptable that political influence and economic interests are undermining the culture of remembrance in Berlin. The Japanese embassy tried to influence jury members of the project fund to decide against educational projects such as “Sit next to me”. When this failed, Kai Wegner personally prevented the continuation of the project. We demand that educational projects and monuments that deal with the memory of historical injustices be protected regardless of economic interests.
Since 2017, Yuriko Koike, the mayor of Tokyo, has refused to send a letter of condolence as part of the commemoration ceremony for the Korean victims of the massacre after the Great Tokyo Earthquake (1923) and has actively censored artworks that deal with the subject. Despite these facts, Kai Wegner continues to do business with her.
Investigation and political consequences: We call on the Berlin Senate to thoroughly investigate these incidents and respect the decisions of the expert jury. Kai Wegner must focus on the needs of Berlin’s citizens instead of using his political influence for the revisionist Japanese government. District Mayor Stefanie Remlinger should reject the pressure from Wegner and the Japanese government and speak out clearly in favor of preserving the peace statue.
Victim protection instead of perpetrator protection: We demand that the protection of victims of sexualized violence be given priority and that educational and awareness-raising work for young people be given greater support.
Aiko Okamoto, one of the organisers of the rally told theleftberlin: “Many people have already proven that the Statue of Peace stands for real peace – peace without colonialism and sexualised violence. This is no longer just a sculpture but a community. You can’t just put up a place like this with money, you have to work together constantly.
This hard-won place is now balanced with the economic interests by by Kai Wegner. This is justified by Japan’s revisionist view of history. With this rally, we want to emphasise once again that the Statue of Peace is a symbol of cohesion.
On September 8th, we will be showing a film which makes it clear how Japanese right-wing actors trivialise the Japanese empire and thus despise the ‘comfort women’ once again. We in Berlin do not bow to this hatred but stand together for justice for ‘comfort women’ and the Statue of Peace.”
Protest Rally – Remembrance for Sale!? For the preservation of the Statue of Peace Ari and for democracacy. Thursday, 5th September, 5pm, Neptunenbrunnen.
Kai Wegner, Berlin’s conservative mayor, recently embraced the antisemitic conspiracy theorist Elon Musk. But Wegner’s relationship to Berlin’s former interior senator Heinrich Lummer raises even more questions.
Heinrich Lummer, West Berlin’s interior senator from 1981 to 1986, has largely been forgotten. At most, a scandal or two from the conservative politician’s time in office has remained in the city’s collective memory. For years, the staunch anti-communist had an affair with an agent from East Germany’s Ministry for State Security (Stasi), making himself vulnerable to blackmail. In 1981, Lummer ordered theeviction of eight squats, during which the 19-year-old squatterKlaus-Jürgen Rattay was pushed under the wheels of a bus and died. A handmade memorial plaque in the sidewalk at Potsdamer Straße 125 still commemorates his death. Lummer’s career came to an end in 1986 due to a realty scandal. It was later revealed that the right-wing hardliner had allegedly donated thousands of marks to right-wing extremists in 1971.
Today, one influential Berlin politician thinks this resume deserves admiration. After Lummer’s death in 2019,Kai Wegner wrote: “He was a strong personality in the Berlin CDU.” Wegner said Lummer was “unforgotten”: “Many will remember him as someone who consistently enforced internal security and order,” the Facebook post reads. “This didn’t just win him friends, but it showed his clear stance.” Today, the writer of that obituary is mayor of Berlin.
Lummer stood out with one topic in particular since the end of the 1990s: his hatred of Jews. In 1997, Lummer spoke out against Jewish immigration to the Federal Republic of Germany in the Ostpreußenblatt, today called the Preußische Allgemeine Zeitung. The country already had too many foreigners — and its foreign policy on questions relating to Israel was largely “determined by others.”
Lummer’s antisemitism was so clear that he was denied entry to Israel in 1998. The following year, in an interview with the right-wing newspaper Junge Freiheit, he said the Berlin Holocaust memorial had only been built due to pressure from the “American East Coast.” In another interview, he wondered if forced labor under the Nazis had really been “so terrible and low-paid.” After all, “there has always been forced labor in the context of war.” When CDU politician Martin Hohmann (now AfD) gave an antisemitic speech in 2003, Lummer was one of the initiators of a solidarity declaration.
Further right-wing bugaboos completed Lummer’s world view. In 1999, again in the Ostpreußenblatt, he wrote that the German people were in danger of disappearing due to mass immigration, encouraged by foreign powers. Today, this far-right conspiracy theory is known as the “Great Replacement.” In 2001, Lummer signed a petition in support of Götz Kubitschek, today an ideologue of the neo-fascist Right, and in 2006, he signed another petition for Junge Freiheit.
None of this is a secret. Lummer’sWikipedia page in German contains an entire section on his antisemitism. How does Wegner respond?
A spokesperson said that the mayor had paid tribute to Lummer due to his folksy style and his commitment to internal security and order. Wegner did not share Lummer’s “views on Israel” then or now. “We do not tolerate antisemitism, racism, or other hateful ideologies in Berlin — neither on the streets nor at universities and other parts of the city.” The question of whether Wegner had ever criticized his mentor’s antisemitism went unanswered.
In March, Wegner had himselfphotographed with Telsa boss Elon Musk, who has been criticized widely for antisemitic conspiracy theories. Further in the past, we find controversial statements by Wegner himself. According to thetaz newspaper, in 2000, Wegner, then the Berlin chairman of the CDU’s youth organization Junge Union, called for young people to finally develop a “healthy relationship with the nation.” The newspaper report quotes indirectly from the then 28-year-old Wegner: “If too much is taught about the ‘12 years’, this could also generate a backlash.” Some might call this an unacceptable relativization.
This is no exception for the CDU. The author of the Nazis’ Nuremberg Laws, Hans Globke, became the right-hand man of CDU boss Konrad Adenauer in 1953 — his portrait still hangs in the Federal Chancellory. Theheirs of Nazi war criminals give large donations to the CDU. Horst Seehofer, a former interior minister from the CDU’s sister party CSU, supported a historical institute that denied the facts of the Holocaust for years, asthe newspaper SZ reported. It would seem that the CDU has a great tolerance for antisemitism — as long as it is from right-wing Germans.
This story was first published in German in the newspapernd on August 26. Translation by the author. The last paragraph was added.
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