Counter rallies in Kaufbeuren show split between supporters of AfD and locals who acknowledge the Bavarian town’s Nazi past

Counter rallies in Kaufbeuren show split between supporters of AfD and locals who acknowledge the Bavarian town’s Nazi past

Soaring church spires, the 1,000-year-old town centre unblemished by second world war bombing or graffiti, snow-capped Alps in the middle distance – Kaufbeuren, in Bavaria, can count many blessings.

Unemployment is in the low single digits, the Luftwaffe backed away from plans to move its training school for Eurofighter and Tornado jet technicians elsewhere and crime is at a historic low.

However, as voters prepare to elect a new European parliament next month, deep-seated fears have gripped a significant share of the electorate in one of the most affluent pockets of Europe’s top economy and delivered it to the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD).

The bond between the party and its voters appears unshaken even by a cascade of recent scandals. The AfD’s lead candidate for the election, Maximilian Krah, was forced by his party leadership on Wednesday to resign from its board and stop campaigning after he told Italy’s La Repubblica that the SS, the Nazi paramilitary force which ran the death camps, were not all criminals and could only be judged on the basis of “individual guilt”.

  • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldMEnglish
    725·
    1 month ago

    “It’s a catastrophe – the worst government we ever had,” said civil servant Manuela, 55, who was from a neighbouring town and, like most of the AfD supporters, declined to give her surname. She brought her teenage daughter to the rally. Despite the low rates of violent crime, she said her family no longer felt safe on the streets due to “Islamists”.

    Anti-AfD activists booed and whistled from the sidelines as Krah addressed the rally. Manuela said: “They call us Nazis just because we’re patriots. The world laughs at us because no country is as dumb as Germany, with our exaggerated tolerance and diversity. They’ve been telling us for decades we should carry this guilt, and so we should rescue the whole world and be its dole office.”

    Hey Manuela from paragraph two, you should talk to Manuela from paragraph one.

    Also… Manuela. Is that a German name?

    • CitizenKong@lemmy.worldEnglish
      44·
      1 month ago

      Manuela is a very German name, so much so a German rapper actually made a song about it.

      But of course its origin isn’t Germanic at all. Which I doubt people with such convictions care about.

    • Ooops@kbin.social
      4·
      1 month ago

      Hey Manuela from paragraph two, you should talk to Manuela from paragraph one.

      Pointing out that this idiocy only works with a massive amount of cognitive dissonance is nothing new…

      • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldMEnglish
        43·
        1 month ago

        And there’s a very well-known TV show and filmmaker from Scotland named Armando Ianucci. I wouldn’t say Armando is a Scottish name.

        • atomicorange@lemmy.worldEnglish
          32·
          1 month ago

          Wikipedia says the root is Hebrew. So…. a European name? Seems pretty popular in Germany.

            • atomicorange@lemmy.worldEnglish
              9·
              1 month ago

              If it’s popular in Germany, given by a German parent to a German child and based on a Hebrew root word, I’d argue it’s a German name as much as it is Portuguese, Spanish, or Italian.

              It’s all semantics though, I assumed your original question was about how common the name was in Germany, not about its linguistic roots. It seems fairly common. If you’re looking for a deep dive on the history of the name I’ll let you do your own research because I honestly don’t give a shit and you’re being kind of rude.