Assault on German SPD politician becomes the occasion for yet another two-minutes hate "against the right," in a tiresome pattern that will repeat itself again and again until the elections are over

Political violence is not a major problem in central Europe. Yes, it happens here as it does everywhere else, and when it happens it is beyond regrettable. Germany, however, is an ageing country, and before the present waves of mass migration crime in general was in decades-long decline. What is more, nobody has a greater interest in condemning political violence than the German right, because Alternative für Deutschland is its foremost victim. Things could hardly be otherwise in the face of unceasing media vilification and calls by political figureheads for “militant opposition” against AfD politicians.

Violence against German politicians by party in the year 2023: 86 acts were directed against the AfD, substantially more than the 62 against the second-place Green Party.

Last year saw two particularly high-profile assaults on AfD representatives. In August, Andreas Jurca, from Augsburg, was beaten unconscious by a group of men as he left a party function. He endured severe facial bruising and a broken ankle, and the press had basically nothing to say about it. In a still more disturbing incident two months later, AfD co-chair Tino Chrupalla suffered a needle attack at a campaign rally in Ingolstadt. He collapsed and ended up spending several days under medical observation in intensive care, while investigators prevaricated and the Bavarian Interior Minister accused him and his party of “perfidiously and deceitfully trying to capitalise” on the attack for political gain. The police rapidly discontinued their investigation and they have made no arrests.

That is the truth of political violence in the Federal Republic, but the truth doesn’t matter, because our rulers have enormous resources at their disposal, and they work night and day to construct a very different reality. In their alternate discursive universe, “the right” is the primary source of political violence and everyone else its victims. This is why attacks like those against Jurca and Chrupalla must be so studiously ignored, and why every last assault on anyone from the left must be elevated to the level of a national emergency.

Last Friday evening, the social democratic MEP Matthias Ecke was putting up political posters when he was attacked by four young men in the Dresden-Striesen neighbourhood. They inflicted severe facial injuries, and Ecke remains in hospital following an emergency operation. The same assailants had previously assaulted a Green Party campaign worker. Yesterday, a 17 year-old identified as Quentin J. admitted responsibility and turned himself in to the police; three other suspects have also been identified. Police now say that they have found “indications of right-wing extremist views” on Quentin J.’s cellphone.

Nobody cared at all about the assault on Tino Chrupalla, but within hours Chrupalla himself condemned the assault, wishing Ecke a rapid recovery and insisting that “campaigns must be tough and constructive … but free of violence.” I share his sentiments unreservedly.

Around the same time, and before any information had been released, our Minister of Perpetual Vaccination Karl Lauterbach released a statement blaming … political speech and Alternative für Deutschland:

Hello. Today the SPD politician Matthias Ecke was brutally attacked while putting up posters in Dresden. Violence must be rejected and all democratic parties must stick together here. This is destroying our political discourse. Is there a connection here with the AfD, or are we not allowed to say that? In my view, there is a connection, because before this party came along, the debate wasn’t so raw, there wasn’t this agitation, there wasn’t so much violence in our speech. And it’s always the same, first comes the violence in language and then the violence is experienced. We have to prevent this together through clear words and clear electoral decisions.

Interior Minister Nancy Faeser, meanwhile, has called for a meeting of state interior ministers to address the grave if mysterious threat to democracy that presents itself whenever establishment politicians face violent attacks, but not when opposition politicians or ordinary people do.

The Minister President of Saxony, Michael Kretschmer, for his part has announced that the assault reflects grave dangers to our democratic system and that it is “five minutes to midnight”:

Saxony’s Minister President Michael Kretschmer (CDU) has called for a swift response to the brutal attack on Dresden SPD EU politician Matthias Ecke and a Green Party campaign worker. “These are enemies of democracy... It really is five to midnight,” he said … explaining that we still have the power to change things …

The attack in Dresden was “a new quality” and must not go unchallenged, Kretschmer demanded. The growing aggression and increasing violence within politics and the population must be countered.

Kretschmer complained that since the “intellectual arsonists” of the AfD entered the Bundestag in 2017, people like him have been portrayed as “traitors to the people” and the EU as a “madhouse.” Right-wing populists are trying to incite the population, he said. The overlap between the AfD and far-right groups is apparent …

To double-plus condemn the attack, three thousand people took to the streets of Striesen yesterday to protest political violence and also to demand that National Socialists be put to death:

“Kill Nazis.”

A long list of establishment politicians have also signed something called the “Striesen Declaration,” proclaiming that they “stand united … against the ever-escalating violence directed towards politically engaged people in public spaces.” Nothing is more important, than actions and petitions against things that are already deeply illegal and that nobody serious would ever support in the first place.

What has sharpened the political tone in Germany is not Alternative für Deutschland, but rather our increasingly aloof and insular politicians, who have all but abandoned the concerns of ordinary people to pursue their own ruinous and eccentric social projects. As they face mounting popular discontent, they’ve responded only with repression and exclusion, further driving support to the AfD and angering ever more millions of Germans. Perhaps it is those who are actually in power who bear responsibility for our present cultural and political climate, and not opposition parties that have been systematically excluded from any say in the way we are governed.

---

I have been away from the plague chronicle for four days – the longest break I’ve taken since I started the blog. This is partly because I’ve been doing a bit of house-hunting, and in part because one must sooner or later recharge one’s literary energies by reading rather than writing. It felt weird to be away from you guys so long, and I’m extremely happy to be back. This is a humdrum current events post, but I’m researching a few longer pieces on World War II and the uniquely German tradition of secret political police that I hope you’ll find interesting.

Here at the bottom, it remains to update you on two stories that have developed while I was away.

1. The release of the nuclear memos revealing the astounding fraud, deception and idiocy that accompanied the German nuclear phase-out, have embarrassed the Greens in general and Economics Minister Robert Habeck specifically. To dispel suspicions that he is an empty husk controlled by a gaggle of fanatical anti-nuclear subordinates, Habeck pleaded that the documents provide a false impression of the final stages of the phase-out. It was the plant operators themselves, he claimed, who decided that continued operation would be impossible.

Since Habeck’s statement, two of these operators – PreussenElektra (PE) and E.on – have flatly contradicted Habeck’s claims:

In a letter to its employees … the PE management emphasises: “We at PreussenElektra have always been open to examining and implementing continued operation and have explained this wherever possible.” Habeck had presented the facts of the nuclear power plant in a “considerably abbreviated” manner. “Essential arguments that prove the feasibility of continued operation have been ignored.” …

E.on also wanted to continue operating its Isar 2 nuclear power plant. “We made it clear throughout the debate that we could technically and logistically enable the continued operation of the power plant if the German government so wished,” according to the statement provided to BILD.

Habeck has now decided it would be the better half of prudence not to talk about the embarrassing nuclear memos at all, and a deafening silence emanates from the Ministry of Economic Affair on the matter.

2. Two weeks ago, I wrote about the spy scandal surrounding Maximilian Krah, the first-place AfD candidate for the EU parliamentary elections. The story involves Krah’s Chinese-borne aide, Jian Guo, who was arrested in April on suspicion of spying for the People’s Republic of China.

It has since emerged that Guo had been in contact with German domestic intelligence (the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution [BfV]) since 2007, and that he later came into the service of the state constitutional protectors in Saxony. Our state spy agency cut Guo loose on 29 August 2018, when they began to suspect that Guo was a Chinese double-agent. In 2019, the BfV placed Guo under surveillance after noticing his repeated visits to the Chinese embassy in Berlin and coming to the same conclusion – just weeks after Krah hired him. Of course, the BfV neglected to notify Krah of their suspicions, even though providing such warnings are much of the reason we have domestic intelligence in the first place.

To summarise: Jian Guo first offered to spy on the Chinese for German intelligence, but they refused to accept his offer because they suspected he was a Chinese double-agent. Guo was then employed by domestic intelligence, who cut him loose when suspicions again emerged that he was a double agent. In the meantime, however, he was granted German citizenship, joined the SPD, and finally the AfD when Maximilian Krah hired him. Whatever we are to make of this story, the Krah-is-a-Chinese-sellout seems like the absolutely least interesting thesis.