Suppressing the Right Wing in Germany

The delegitimizing of conservative political opinion has been going on for a long time. The process is further advanced in Canada and Europe than it is in the United States, but as the Hope ’n’ Change regime cranks up next Tuesday, Americans will be doing their best to catch up.

No country has demonized the Right more thoroughly than Germany. A deep irony is at work here: German conservatives are considered heirs of the Nazis, and thus are pushed beyond the pale. The fact that Nazism — National Socialism — was as much of the Left as Communism was has been dropped down the memory hole. The conflation of Nazism and the Right is now established historical fact, and — like global warming and the success of FDR’s economic policies — cannot be questioned.

In Cologne, the power of the state backed by taxpayers’ money is being used to suppress right-wing politics. The following article was posted last Wednesday at the Pro-Köln website and has been translated from the German by our Flemish correspondent VH:

Tax money for projects “against the right”

The Federal Ministry for Family Affairs promotes an “Action plan against the right” with €100,000 of taxpayers’ money. These funds are designated for the political orientation of children and youngsters in the age group 8 to 12 years, with the project “Ehrenfeld, a district discovers its Nazi history” and for the establishment of a “Network against the Right”. All three projects are politically dubious.

The attempt to politically influence children in primary school was up until now practiced by totalitarian regimes such as those of the National Socialists and the Communists. It was not of much value: most “Hitler Youth” and “Young Pioneers” have shaken off the ideological grip of their childhood. The attempt to politically influence very young people and steer them in a certain direction is incompatible with democratic principles. In addition, the supporters of the respective manipulation activities are — of course as always — anxious to conceal their political educational program as “universally human”.

Once it was “The Fatherland,” then it was “World Peace”, and today it is “Anti-Racism” that has to serve as the pretext for the once-ruling political class to influence a generation of growing children towards their own political purpose.

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The attempt to make the district of Cologne as an example out of their mastery of the past into a mass phenomenon, has miserably failed.

The project supervisors had set themselves an ambitious goal: “In Ehrenfeld [district of Cologne], the entire population is called to explore the Nazi era: in their own memory, family, houses, the businesses, the hospitals, police stations, the parish, the garden club, etc. The results will be presented in an exhibition.”

So far however, the “entire population” stayed far away from participating in the project. They now will be “stimulated” with tax money.

The network that has to be founded for the third pillar of the government-funded project [“Network against the Right”], is directed explicitly “against the right,” rather than against right-wing extremism. But what is in principle objectionable to standing politically on the right? Regardless of the outdated left-right classifications of the 20th Century, this is clearly an attempt to use tax money for a political confrontation with unwelcome dissidents. Obviously it is everybody’s privilege to be “against the right” or “against the left”, but at their own expense and not at the cost of the public purse!

Even the Mayor of Cologne, Fritz Schramma, boasts yet again of a “fight against the right”. He has asked musicians and union leaders to provide some tailwind in the battle for the local elections. On May 9, 2009, four weeks before the elections, a number of political, religious and social players against the Anti-Islamization Congress will be brought into position. Not all, but many of them are readily let themselves be put before the election cart of the old parties.

But all this will not help Schramma & Co., because on June 7, 2009, the citizens of Cologne have the final word. The response pro-Köln has experienced in recent years throughout the city has risen significantly since the last elections. In 2004 many of Cologne’s citizens were not familiar with our movement, which has become an integral part of the political life of the city during these years.

Therefore the agitation by the majority groups in city hall will not help against Pro-Köln. The citizens of Cologne know how dubious their arguments are. The local elections will make Pro-Köln stronger and the old parties weaker!