German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier at the scene of the Wednesday night attacks. – PATRICK HERTZOG / AFP
- Two xenophobic attacks left nine dead near Frankfurt, Germany, Wednesday evening. And this is not the first in recent months.
- In early February, CDU elected officials from Angela Merkel of the far right of the AfD joined forces in Thuringia.
- The German political context is therefore tense, but the democratic forces remain powerful, say the specialists interviewed by 20 minutes.
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Nine people died in two attacks near Frankfurt, in two shisha bars in Hanau. If the investigation has only just begun, the xenophobic character of these attacks is now little doubt, especially after the discovery of a letter of claim from the main suspect.
This is not the first racist attack in recent months in Germany: a synagogue in Halle was attacked in October, an elected official who had welcomed migrants was assassinated in June … The German political climate is tense. 20 minutes tried to find out more clearly.
Far-right attacks, is this new in Germany?
“It’s normal to be worried when the extreme right shows up again in Germany but the phenomenon is not new, “said Jérôme Vaillant at once 20 minutes. Professor Emeritus of German Civilization at the University of Lille, Director ofGermany today, believes that the risk has been “overlooked in recent years by German intelligence, compared to the risk of the far left. Today we have the evidence to see that far-right groups are reforming. “
The specialist of the extreme right in Europe, Jean-Yves Camus, that 20 minutes also questioned, disagreed: “German intelligence has been following the ultra-right very carefully. But it has always acted thanks to small, very mobile groups which are difficult to intercept. “The specialist cites the case of a dozen murders,
including Germans of Turkish origin, in the early 2000s: “For a long time the police believed in vicious acts when it was a
small group of neo-Nazis which blended well into the landscape: the NSU. “
Why is the current context more worrying?
If, as Jean-Yves Camus says, violent acts from the far right have not necessarily been correlated with the successes of far right parties at the polls, this time difficult to forget the fact that for the first time since 1945 there are deputies and deputies d ‘far right, from the AfD party, in the Bundestag. Or not to think about this very first alliance between elected officials and elected officials of the classic right (CDU, Angela Merkel’s party) and the AfD to elect a liberal president at the head of the Land of
Thuringia (Former East Germany).
“What happened in Thuringia, even if it ended in failure, since the elected president resigned, necessarily has a ripple effect”, judge Jérôme Vaillant, who also thinks that the attacks which follow one another can give ideas to people “balanced or not”. “Another worrying signal, says Jean-Yves Camus: about fifteen people linked to the far right were arrested last week, including a police officer. Soldiers too. “We suspect this group, called” hard core “, to plan attacks against mosques or against migrants,” added the Lille academic.
Can the far right benefit?
“Until then, even the most right-wing leaders of the CDU-CSU had not envisaged an alliance with the AfD. But there is no longer really this “mental restriction”, “describes Jean-Yves Camus. He continues: “What has changed from previous waves of violence is the huge impact of the wave of migrants arriving in 2015. It has freed xenophobic discourse. Monday evening demonstrations in Pegida in Leipzig which brought together up to 20,000 people. These were average right-wing voters who already thought that before. The AfD cleverly recovered these people. And then there is a hatred of Chancellor Merkel. “
“The Thuringian affair gives the far right the feeling that it is on the rise and that there is a fault in which to be engulfed,” blows Jérôme Vaillant. The AfD will try to make the CDU understand that it is now impossible to govern without them. This is in a context where the future of the post-Merkel party for the September 2021 elections seems uncertain.
But our two specialists qualify: ” Angela MerkelHas always stood firm on principles. And it’s not just a strategy, “said Jean-Yves Camus. And, indeed, in the Thuringian affair, it severely judged the behavior of its troops in the land. Also, “faced with the rise of the far right, the deeply democratic Germans are taking to the streets,” said Jérôme Vaillant. This was the case, spontaneously, on February 5, after the surprise election of a liberal, Thomas Kemmerich, at the head of Thuringia thanks to the votes of the AfD. It was also what prompted him to resign the next day. “Far-right protests have always been closely followed by democratic protests. We must trust them, “said the Lille academic.
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