Monday, September 25, 2017

Neo-Nazis enter the Bundestag -- and the European Stage

Chancellor Angela Merkel's successful run for a fourth term is marred by the entrance of Germany's far-right AFD party into the Bundestag.  Interestingly, it now claims the same percentage of voters as France's National Front, with 13% of the vote, but the AfD's entry into the German Parliament carries a different weight from that of the National Front: the passion exhibited by its party leaders celebrating last night had an unmistakable 'revanchist' tone: such passion could not have been directed at Frauke Petri, the party's head, but only at a long-dead idol.

Not unrelatedly, RT showed Petri declaring this morning stating that she would forego sitting in the Bundestag with her fellow AFD representatives, in order to concentrate on a long-range strategy for the party. If that isn't sinister I don't know what is.  Why does a small German party need a long-term strategy if it has already gained access to the law-making body?  If that is not enough, what does the AfD want?

The answer lies in its leaders' repeated commitment to preventing 'Sharia' as they call Islam, from 'taking over Europe', a much greater challenge than simply purging Europe of its Jewish population, see my http://www.otherjones.com/2015/03/in-europe-arithmetic-of-otherness-and.html.

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