Russia’s Attack, Germany’s Self-Abandonment and What We Can Learn from the AfD
The state election in Saxony-Anhalt has produced the expected and feared result. But what can we learn from it? An assessment by Georg Lundström-Halbgebauer, Secretary General of the Paneuropa Movement Austria.
About a month ago, Russia attacked Leipzig airport. Reaction: nothing. Nada. Weeks later, on 2 September, Germany finally confirmed: “Yes, these were Russian drones.” Russia, of course, protests, claims this is an outrageous impertinence on Germany’s part, and that it has never attacked any sovereign country anyway. This Russian propaganda is eagerly repeated and amplified by enemies of the constitution on the right and the left of the political spectrum: “Your government is lying to you.” “Von der Leyen is a warmonger.” “In Russia, all is still well with the world.” Messages like these run on a continuous loop. The result: the population is deeply unsettled. Not because of the devastating security situation, but because people no longer know whom to believe.
The sad fact that party politics simply demands that people lie if they want to succeed does not help to regain the population’s trust. For, as Abraham Lincoln so aptly put it: “You can fool some people sometime and you can fool some people all of the time, but you can’t fool all the people all of the time.”
It is not very helpful that Commission President von der Leyen declared: “If the intention was to make us reconsider our support for Ukraine, I can assure you that it has only strengthened my resolve.” For in a democracy, what matters (fortunately) is not the personal resolve of the political leadership, but the resolve of the sovereign, namely the people.
How determined is Europe’s sovereign?
Yet Europe’s sovereign is anything but determined to stand up to Russia. It is not even sure whether it wants to remain the sovereign, or whether it might once again venture an authoritarian experiment. The result of the state election in Saxony-Anhalt on 6 September shows that a party can openly oppose the foundations of Germany’s constitutional order and even be officially classified as hostile to the constitution: people vote for it because it offers simple answers to highly complex questions. But perhaps also because it takes seriously concerns that others ignore or dismiss.
Freedom, democracy and the rule of law are never a given. They were fought for, partly with words, partly with weapons in hand. But Europe’s hands have grown soft. Weapons are evil anyway. And instead of standing up for what one believes in, one would rather keep sleeping in peace because it is more comfortable. This is also because many have lost the answer to the question of who “we” actually are, and the courage to say so openly.
Does this have anything to do with Christianity?
Does this have anything to do with Christianity? Not only, but also. The autocrats of this world know this, whether in China, where Christians are still marginalised, or in Russia, where Putin instrumentalises the Church for his own purposes. What do we live for today? Bullshit jobs, houses that hardly anyone can afford anymore, cars that keep getting more expensive (unless they come from China), or the children nobody wants to have anymore? People are stuck in total isolation. Even more so since Covid. This not only makes them easy prey for the extremist algorithm, it also takes away their “why”.
What can we learn from the AfD? It does not apologise. It does not duck away. Instead, it stands up straight and says the unspeakable, the unthinkable, the inhumane. Where are the Europeans who stand up just as straight? We should say: “This continent belongs to us. Not to the fascists, not to the socialists, not to the algorithms, and not to those who feel ‘offended’ by our way of life, yet would prefer that thieves have their hands cut off.” (We had that once, too. It wasn’t so good.) Where are the people who, when struck on the left cheek, also turn the right one instead of ducking away? Not out of self-sacrifice, as is so often misunderstood, but out of resistance.
