After yesterday’s General Election in Germany, outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel has been returned for a fourth term in office, emulating her mentor, the late Helmut Kohl. The next few weeks will be taken up with the inevitable coalition negotiations, which may become protracted following the decision of the centre-left SPD to go into opposition. But for some, the rise of the far-right AfD is the biggest story from the contest.
Squeaky Third Reich finger up the bum time
Alternative für Deutschland claims to be a populist party opposed to what it sees as EU overreach, but it has recently lurched further to the right, and some of its prospective Reichstag members have shown sympathy for the actions of the Third Reich, as well as recycling Nazi-era terms such as “untermensch” to describe Muslims. The party has fed off discontent at the recent influx of refugees, especially in the former East Germany.
You'll have to speak up, I'm a bit Mutt and Jeff
So it might have been sensible for mainstream politicians to keep a safe distance from them, but this thought has not been allowed to enter at the convocation of disgruntled saloon bar propper-uppers that is UKIP. The Kippers are positively relishing the prospect of unreconstructed Nazis securing power in Germany, so much so that the party’s former Oberscheissenführer Nigel “Thirsty” Farage spoke at one of their rallies.
Nige couldn’t manage Nuremberg, or a Munich beer hall - he’d have liked that - but instead spoke at a gathering in Rudolf Hess’ old back yard of Spandau. And today he’s off to talk with Steve Bannon, an equally unreconstructed white supremacist. In the meantime, his fellow Kippers are welcoming AfD and not concerning themselves about the downside, such is the blatant bigotry on display in the party nowadays.
“UK news media relentlessly calling AfD 'far right'. Any party that wants to defend its own people & culture is labelled so. Well done AfD! … AfD's Beatrix von Storch MEP sits near me in Euro Parl and she is one of the nicest people you could hope to meet. Not 'far-right' at all!” blustered Gerard Batten, a friend of Moscow and occasional UKIP MEP. Yes, Eva Braun was an agreeable Hausfrau type, so that’s all right, then.
Another UKIP MEP, former alleged journalist Patrick “Lunchtime” O’Flynn, endorsed a message that 49% of Germans thought AfD “understood better than the others that people no longer feel safe”. Not that he’s trying to frighten us over Scary Muslims (tm).
And Roger Helmer, Mr Tolerance himself, declared “Despite one or two ill-advised comments from individuals, I’ve found the AfD to be reasonable folk with rational concerns on immigration … Congratulations to my friend Beatrix Von Storch of AfD. Now elected to the Bundestag. A great result”. I don’t like the zound of these ‘ere Boncentration Bamps.
Meanwhile, Leave EU, the UKIP branch of the Leave campaign, Tweeted “BREAKING: Eurosceptic AfD surge according to exit polls. Gained huge support after Merkel opened the floodgates!” Nudge nudge, floodgates, swamping, brown people who don’t go down the pub and get ratarsed like good honest Nige.
Yes, UKIP are just welcoming fellow Eurosceptics to the political stage, and there’s nothing to see here, so move along. And if you believe that, you’ll believe anything.
2 comments:
It's no surprise that UKIP congratulate AfD - the two parties are very similar. Both are eurosceptic and peddle a range of lies, racism and conspiracy theories.
While I don't have any problem with the UK media referring to AfD as "far right", I don't understand why they don't also refer to UKIP as "far right". It's only fair. I suppose there aren't any political extremists in the UK, that's only for other countries.
And so Europe (which includes Britain) drifts further and further to the right. Eastern Europe is, as usual, the worst of the lot, though the rogue state that is the USA runs it a very close second.
At some time in the future there will be yet another depression, more "austerity" and almost certainly another war in the East instigated by the West.
You would think by now enough people would have engaged in joined-up thinking and identified common factors in it all. It isn't as though there were no precedents in the 20th century.
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