When we looked ahead to 2023 twelve months ago, the media augurs had no idea what would happen over the course of the year; not the natural disasters with 50,000 earthquake deaths in Turkey and Syria, with the forest fires in Greece and Spain and with the floods in North Africa, Bulgaria and Germany; nor the world championship titles for basketball players and U17 footballers.
Above all, no one suspected, because no one believed it was possible, what happened in the Middle East on October 7th: Hamas terrorists attacked Israel, killed over 1,200 people and kidnapped more than 240 hostages. So looking back at 2023, the year of the 75th anniversary of the State of Israel, is a look of shock.
75 years of the Basic Law: The foundation of Germany
With their own state founded on May 14, 1948, 2,000 years of expulsion and persecution for the Jews, as had happened shortly before in the Holocaust, were supposed to come to an end. We have known for almost three months how far away this goal still is today, how far away peace is in the Middle East. Because the war in Israel, like the war in Ukraine, has a global impact and is also dividing society in this country and tearing people apart, 2024 also starts with a heavy burden.
These elections are coming up for Brandenburg
Once again, with the Olympics in Paris and the European Football Championships in Germany, there are sporting highlights that can bring us unexpected things like the two world championship titles in 2023. And once again we journalists are looking ahead to significant 75th anniversaries: 75 years ago on May 23rd the Basic Law was proclaimed and signed in Bonn. This marked the founding of the Federal Republic of Germany. A week later, the Third German People’s Congress met in the Soviet occupied zone to draw up a constitution for eastern Germany. This lasted until October 7, 1949, the day the GDR was founded.
The Office for the Protection of the Constitution classifies the party as definitely right-wing extremist
The Basic Law, the constitution for West Germany, was drawn up as a provisional measure by the Parliamentary Council out of fear of a division of Germany, which was divided into occupation zones.
The Basic Law ensures democracy in freedom
The Basic Law is no longer a provisional arrangement. It is the guideline, the guardrail of our free, democratic social order. It is the guarantee of 75 years of peace. It is our greatest good. Our basic law distinguishes us from authoritarian state systems, totalitarian regimes and dictatorships; it protects us from oppression and guarantees our freedom.
Parts of the AfD are trampling on the constitution
This basic law has so far defied its opponents, and enough of them will appear again in the new year. Some of them were only legitimized by the Basic Law. You sit in parliament for the AfD. Racist AfD MPs question human dignity. According to Article 1 of the Basic Law, human dignity is forever inviolable. AfD parliamentarians, including their parliamentary group leader and potential candidate for chancellor Alice Weidel, want to ban and negate Islam from Germany so that religious freedom, which Article 4 shows as inviolable.
AfD candidate wins mayoral election in Germany for the first time
The AfD also tramples on freedom of the press and freedom of expression, Article 5, by excluding unwanted media representatives and even physically attacking them. And the AfD wants to “refound” the EU, as it says in its program for the European elections in June. Finally she wanted to dissolve it or leave it. This also contradicts the Basic Law, in this case Article 23.
State elections in 2024: Will they shake the constitution?
To the day, 75 years after the Parliamentary Council began its work in Bonn on September 1, 1949 on the basis of the new Basic Law, Saxony and Thuringia are re-electing their state parliaments. In both countries, the AfD is “certainly right-wing extremist”. The state elections in Brandenburg will follow three weeks later.
So 2024 is a groundbreaking year, especially in East Germany. People also decide on the (un)shakability of their constitution. May the review in a year not be one of shock again.
2023-12-30 04:03:12
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