2024-04-02 07:01:35
When my grandfather was sent to the Dachau concentration camp in the middle of the Second World War for “defeatist statements,” the Bergmüller family learned an important lesson regarding the dangers of all-powerful state apparatuses. Today one would probably say: Grandpa Bergmüller was given a threat speech – and luckily escaped with his life.
Above all, because of my own family history, I have a deep contempt for authoritarian systems and political conformity. In my world, everyone can say anything as long as they don’t undermine the honor of their counterpart or incite violence. Unfortunately, I can’t exactly claim that our political opponents would also adhere to this code.
Section 241a of the Criminal Code explains the criminal offense of political suspicion:
“Anyone who, through a complaint or a suspicion, exposes another to the risk of being persecuted for political reasons and, in contradiction to the principles of the rule of law, of suffering damage to life or limb through violent or arbitrary measures, is deprived of their freedom or of their professional or economic position Being severely impaired is punishable by imprisonment for up to five years or a fine.”
As a representative of the AfD, following many years of political work, I have to say that Paragraph 241 is regularly broken – by the government, the media, dubious NGOs and the state-funded Antifa.
When dealing with the AfD, it is knowingly and, in my opinion, willingly accepting that representatives of the party will be politically persecuted and economically damaged. Anyone who doubts this should look at the orchestrated hunt for the “secret meeting” between CDU and AfD members in Potsdam. But it doesn’t help us as a society if we put each other in the worst possible categories and burn all the bridges between us.
Long before the protests “ once morest the right” one might see increasing pressure to conform and harbingers of social conformity in Germany. A majority of citizens now even say they are afraid of free expression of opinion – and not because of the AfD, but because of their own government and the media.
If a CSU mayor indirectly forces her administrative employees to take part in a political demonstration (as happened in Augsburg), then that is not democratic, but totalitarian. If society openly calls for people to distance themselves from anything or anyone, then that is not a sign of democracy, but of coercion and intimidation.
There is an increasing climate of fear of being counted on the wrong side. Similar to medieval witch hunts, citizens who have shown too little or even the wrong attitude are now publicly burned at the social stake.
I don’t want my sons to have to live in a world like this, and I will therefore continue to oppose this dangerous development. Democracy always dies little by little, but with the gradual restriction of freedom of expression, the red line towards totalitarian structures is crossed. Anyone who opposes this is not an enemy of the constitution, but on the contrary stands up for the free and democratic basic order.
A state apparatus that can only stay in power through intimidation forfeits all legitimacy. I’m not saying we’re at that point yet – but we’re rapidly approaching it.
Franz Bergmüller, 58, is a master butcher and innkeeper. Since 2018 he has been a member of the Bavarian state parliament for the AfD.
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