2024-05-14 05:01:30
After attacks on politicians, Lanz criticized the judiciary. Carlo Masala reports death threats. An AfD politician questions the protection of the constitution.
According to political scientist Herfried Münkler, brutal attacks on politicians like those recently in Dresden are the ultimate warning signals for democracy. He said on Tuesday evening on “Lanz” that attacks like those on SPD MEP Matthias Ecke were no longer isolated cases. He saw a development that fundamentally questioned democracy and drew parallels to the end of the Weimar Republic. This time too, the justice system is in danger of failing.
- Rüdiger Lucassen (AfD), defense politician
- Carlo Masala, military expert, University of the Bundeswehr Munich
- Antonie Rietzschel, journalist “Leipziger Volkszeitung”
- Herfried Münkler, political scientist
Münkler, who taught at the Humboldt University in Berlin until 2018, made serious allegations against the Dresden law enforcement authorities. The political scientist at “Lanz” said he was “shocked” that Eckes’ alleged attackers were released. Apparently, deterring crimes against citizens who support democracy is “not really taken seriously.”
Lanz: Democracy in danger?
At this point, Antonie Rietzschel from the “Leipziger Volkszeitung” interjected with “Markus Lanz”: For the alleged perpetrators, aged 17 and 18, there is no risk of escape and no risk of being blacked out and therefore no reason for detention. She saw no turning point in the attack. In fact, politicians have increasingly become victims of violence in recent years.
“Only politicians?” Lanz wanted to know from Carlo Masala. “I am threatened, regularly. I have also given lectures under police protection,” said the professor at the University of the Bundeswehr in Munich, who has publicly called for more military aid for Ukraine since Russia’s war of aggression.
“From two in the morning my email inbox is full of such threats,” Masala described the situation after appearances at Lanz, for example. This ranges from verbal derailments to death threats.
“Does the AfD have a share in this brutalization?” Lanz wanted to know from Rüdiger Lucassen (AfD). “Our party does not despise this democracy,” replied the defense policy spokesman for the AfD parliamentary group. He also complained about increasing violence. He and his wife even sold their house in the Eifel out of fear for their animals after, among other things, there were “Nazi” writings on the house wall.
AfD politician at Lanz
“I don’t want to talk about anarchy,” said the retired colonel. D., member of the Defense Committee. But a lot of things have gotten out of hand and are now being carried out with physical violence on the streets. The target is often politicians from his party.
Lucassen and Münkler had different views on the question of how effectively the judiciary and police protect democracy and its representatives. The political scientist accused the Federal Constitutional Court of missing the moment to ban the AfD. The party is now too big to be banned.
The trust in a judiciary “that, to a certain extent, holds the political center – this trust is unfounded,” said Münkler. And the “Dresden justice system, which has already released the thugs,” is also of little help.
Lucassen, however, said that he still believes that the separation of powers works in Germany. An AfD ban application has not yet been submitted because it is clear that it has no chance of success.
But it is no coincidence that three state associations of the AfD and their youth organization have been classified as right-wing extremist by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Masala interjected. This is being brushed aside by parts of the AfD with the “delegitimizing” argument that the Office for the Protection of the Constitution is just an appendage of the Interior Ministry. “Isn’t he?” replied Lucassen.