In February 1930, Adolf Hitler was in a jubilant mood. “Our biggest success we had in Thuringia,” he wrote. “There we are the most significant party. The parties in Thuringia trying to create a government cannot secure a majority without our co-operation.”
Germany may have pledged “never again”. But 90 years on, the far right has once again played – albeit briefly – the role of kingmaker in the eastern German state.
Thuringia’s AfD – led by a man who can, a German court ruled last year, be reasonably described as a fascist – has caused a political earthquake which has brought thousands of Germans on to the streets in the protest.
Until a few days ago, many of those protesters had never heard of Thomas Kemmerich.
The regional politician was, for 24 hours or so, unexpectedly elevated to the role of state prime minister thanks to the support of regional AfD politicians who ignored their own candidate in order to oust existing prime minister Bodo Ramelow who, following inconclusive elections last year, had been widely expected to continue as leader over a newly negotiated left-wing coalition.
After countrywide outrage, Mr Kemmerich stood down. But not before the Free Democrat came to symbolise the vulnerability of what the Germans call the Brandmauer – the firewall which, by decades-long political convention, is supposed to keep the far right from exerting real influence over German politics.
For many it’s a mark of national shame that the AfD has found such fertile electoral ground in the former east of the country. It’s one of the reasons for the inconclusive election result in Thuringia.
At national level, the party’s presence in the Bundestag has coarsened parliamentary debates and, arguably, its campaigns centred around migration and national identity have broken old German taboos and shifted politics to the right, as the political centre struggled to deal with the electoral challenge.
But what happened in Thuringia has sent a particular shudder down the country’s spine.
Mr Kemmerich, of the liberal and business-minded Free Democrat Party (FDP), may have voiced his opposition to the AfD. But he took the job anyway – on a majority secured with their support.
Up the federal ladder, FDP chief Christian Lindner initially appeared to accept the result, despite the horrified response of senior members of his party.
Accused of seeking power at any price, Mr Lindner was reminded of his own words when in 2017 he walked away from coalition negotiations with Angela Merkel at federal level saying: “It’s better not to govern than to govern badly.”
And the affair has raised uncomfortable suspicions within Angela Merkel’s CDU.
The chancellor, who described what happened as “unforgivable”, sharply rebuked regional politicians from her own party. They had also voted for Mr Kemmerich, eliciting accusations that – locally at least – the CDU was ready to break a pledge to never join forces with the far right.
The head of Mrs Merkel’s CDU, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, will discuss the matter with her coalition partners this weekend. Her ever reluctant Social Democrat partners will no doubt want assurances that the CDU has no intention of working with AfD at any level and that she – and her party – can control its regional politicians.
She herself is under pressure. Having forbidden Thuringia’s CDU leader from seeking a local alliance with Die Linke (the Left party), some are unsurprised that the party aligned itself, knowingly or otherwise, with the AfD. The German government is also painfully aware of the changing political landscape – and the part AfD plays within it.
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In Thuringia, fresh elections are now expected. Even so, for many, the case has raised painful parallels.
Belgian ex-Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt was among those who took to social media in protest, circulating a photograph of a newly elected Mr Kemmerich shaking hands with Thuringia’s hard-right AfD leader Björn Höcke, and juxtaposing it with one of Hitler greeting the then German president Paul von Hindenburg.
Barely a week ago, this country reflected on the atrocities of World War Two, during commemorations to mark the anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz.
That the far right has been able to wield such influence, that a mainstream political party accepted its support and that, knowingly or otherwise, Angela Merkel’s CDU appeared to align with them is, for many, the source of great shame.
Opinion: Brad West been one of the sharpest critics of decriminalization
Published Apr 22, 2024 • Last updated 2 hours ago • 4 minute read
VICTORIA — Port Coquitlam Mayor Brad West fired off a letter to Premier David Eby last week about Allan Schoenborn, the child killer who changed his name in a bid for anonymity.
“It is completely beyond the pale that individuals like Schoenborn have the ability to legally change their name in an attempt to disassociate themselves from their horrific crimes and to evade the public,” wrote West.
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The Alberta government has legislated against dangerous, long-term and high risk offenders who seek to change their names to escape public scrutiny.
“I urge your government to pass similar legislation as a high priority to ensure the safety of British Columbians,” West wrote the premier.
The B.C. Review Board has granted Schoenborn overnight, unescorted leave for up to 28 days, and he spent some of that time in Port Coquitlam, according to West.
This despite the board being notified that “in the last two years there have been 15 reported incidents where Schoenborn demonstrated aggressive behaviour.”
“It is absolutely unacceptable that an individual who has committed such heinous crimes, and continues to demonstrate this type of behaviour, is able to roam the community unescorted.”
Understandably, those details alarmed PoCo residents.
But the letter is also an example of the outspoken mayor’s penchant for to-the-point pronouncements on provincewide concerns.
He’s been one of the sharpest critics of decriminalization.
His most recent blast followed the news that the New Democrats were appointing a task force to advise on ways to curb the use of illicit drugs and the spread of weapons in provincial hospitals.
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“Where the hell is the common sense here?” West told Mike Smyth on CKNW recently. “This has just gone way too far. And to have a task force to figure out what to do — it’s obvious what we need to do.
“In a hospital, there’s no weapons and you can’t smoke crack or fentanyl or any other drugs. There you go. Just saved God knows how much money and probably at least six months of dithering.”
He had a pithy comment on the government’s excessive reliance on outside consultants like MNP to process grants for clean energy and other programs.
“If ever there was a place to find savings that could be redirected to actually delivering core public services, it is government contracts to consultants like MNP,” wrote West.
He’s also broken with the Eby government on the carbon tax.
“The NDP once opposed the carbon tax because, by its very design, it is punishing to working people,” wrote West in a social media posting.
“The whole point of the tax is to make gas MORE expensive so people don’t use it. But instead of being honest about that, advocates rely on flimsy rebate BS. It is hard to find someone who thinks they are getting more dollars back in rebates than they are paying in carbon tax on gas, home heat, etc.”
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West has a history with the NDP. He was a political staffer and campaign worker with Mike Farnworth, the longtime NDP MLA for Port Coquitlam and now minister of public safety.
When West showed up at the legislature recently, Farnworth introduced him to the house as “the best mayor in Canada” and endorsed him as his successor: “I hope at some time he follows in my footsteps and takes over when I decide to retire — which is not just yet,” added Farnworth who is running this year for what would be his eighth term.
Other political players have their eye on West as a future prospect as well.
Several parties have invited him to run in the next federal election. He turned them all down.
Lately there has also been an effort to recruit him to lead a unified Opposition party against Premier David Eby in this year’s provincial election.
I gather the advocates have some opinion polling to back them up and a scenario that would see B.C. United and the Conservatives make way (!) for a party to be named later.
Such flights of fancy are commonplace in B.C. when the NDP is poised to win against a divided Opposition.
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By going after West, the advocates pay a compliment to his record as mayor (low property taxes and a fix-every-pothole work ethic) and his populist stands on public safety, carbon taxation and other provincial issues.
The outreach to a small city mayor who has never run provincially also says something about the perceived weaknesses of the alternatives to Eby.
“It is humbling,” West said Monday when I asked his reaction to the overtures.
But he is a young father with two boys, aged three and seven. The mayor was 10 when he lost his own dad and he believes that if he sought provincial political leadership now, “I would not be the type of dad I want to be.”
When West ran for re-election — unopposed — in 2022, he promised to serve out the full four years as mayor.
He is poised to keep his word, confident that if the overtures to run provincially are serious, they will still be there when his term is up.
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LIVE Q&A WITH B.C. PREMIER DAVID EBY: Join us April 23 at 3:30 p.m. when we will sit down with B.C. Premier David Eby for a special edition of Conversations Live. The premier will answer our questions — and yours — about a range of topics, including housing, drug decriminalization, transportation, the economy, crime and carbon taxes. Click HERE to get a link to the livestream emailed to your inbox.
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