Exclusive
Status: 10.09.2021 11:24 a.m.
The AfD in Cottbus repeatedly creates mood with individual acts of violence by refugees. With this strategy she wants to win the first direct mandate in Brandenburg in the federal election.
Shortly after the Cottbus police published a press release about a seriously injured man who was found with a chest injury in the city center, an employee of the Brandenburg AfD parliamentary group called in: He wanted to know whether it was a “perpetrator of foreign origin”. The police press release only mentioned that the victim was a Cottbuser who was known to have been involved in a drug offense. The perpetrator of a possible crime, however, was not yet known.
The request fits into the current strategy of the parliamentary group, which moves alleged and real acts of violence by immigrants into the focus of their federal election campaign in the constituency of Cottbus / Spree-Neisse. A strategy with which the AfD has already had success in previous elections: In the 2017 federal election, it got the best second-vote result of all parties here, and in the 2019 state election it took the direct mandate from an SPD state minister.
Organized xenophobic protests
Before that, a right-wing extremist alliance around the association “Zukunft Heimat” had organized xenophobic street protests in Cottbus for more than two years and thus mobilized voters for the AfD: in association with other right-wing extremist initiatives such as Pegida, the Identitarians, and with right-wing hooligans. The campaign was mainly driven by the new right-wing think tank “Institute for State Politics (IfS)” and the monthly magazine “Compact” published in Brandenburg, both of which were classified as suspected right-wing extremist cases by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution.
Together they also founded the networking association “One Percent”, which brought the street protests of “Zukunft Heimat” into connection with right-wing extremist and new-right initiatives throughout Germany. Hans-Christoph Berndt is co-founder and chairman of “Zukunft Heimat”. He also moved into the state parliament as a direct candidate for the AfD in 2019, and has since acted as a Group leader succeeds Andreas Kalbitz at.
Right-wing extremist network in the parliamentary group
Berndt built an existing one right-wing extremist network among employees in the parliamentary group further out. This also includes Jörg Dittus from the right-wing extremist Identitarian Movement, who became a parliamentary group spokesman this summer. They are now working together to ensure that Member of the State Parliament Daniel Münschke from nearby Guben in constituency 64 (Cottbus / Spree-Neisse) gets the first direct mandate from Brandenburg for the Bundestag.
The success of 2017 and 2019 should be repeated in 2021, as the AfD district chairman Jean-Pascal Hohm confirms. He is also part of the network, was the man from “One Percent” in Cottbus, has already worked in various AfD parliamentary groups and is currently working in Daniel Münschke’s constituency office. “It is important that there is this protest on the street, but also as strong voices in parliament,” said Hohm on the sidelines of a demonstration by “Zukunft Heimat” in Cottbus last week. He appeared as a speaker at the demonstration and is sure that the concept will work: “That is why we already have a few members from Lusatia in the state parliament.”
After him, AfD parliamentary group leader Berndt spoke in Cottbus and specified the direction of the campaign. “The public space has become insecure. And again and again there are attacks allegedly seeking protection, more often among each other, but also again and again on locals and again and again armed,” Berndt shouted to a crowd of around 200 people.
Fighting among Syrians serves as a ramp
The background is a brutal fight. A week earlier, a group of Syrian refugees had beaten two compatriots with wooden slats near the demonstration site. The victims were seriously injured and taken to hospital, four attackers were arrested and have been in custody since then. There were many uninvolved eyewitnesses. The attack was filmed and videos are circulating online. They show the deed, as well as an alleged other person involved, who runs provocatively across the street with two long combat knives in his hands. Shortly after the fact, the videos were distributed on Twitter, on the account of “Zukunft Heimat” and of Jean-Pascal Hohm under “#Migrantenkrawalle”.
Two days later, the new AfD parliamentary group spokesman Jörg Dittus announced the topic of “riots in Cottbus” at a press conference in the Potsdam state parliament. The spokeswoman for domestic affairs then spoke of the fact that “in our society it is fundamentally not customary to hit each other with a stick”. Then she linked the incident with “bringing in supposedly local workers” from Afghanistan: “Because it could also import violence here, to Germany.”
No increased risk from refugees
Despite the heavy beating, the Cottbus police contradicted the suspicion that Cottbus / Spree-Neisse had become much more unsafe because of the refugees. Nevertheless, there is “nothing nice to talk about” in the last known incident, says police spokeswoman Ines Filohn. Violent crime has been falling significantly since January 2018, when there were individual acts of violence against Cottbus residents by Syrian refugees, which threw the city into an uproar.
In 2019, 528 violent crimes were recorded, including 72 cases with immigrants as suspects. In 2020 there were 462 violent crimes, 60 of them with immigrants as suspects. Nevertheless, the AfD has been posting posters in Lusatia since this week: “Prevent something new in 2015! No admission of refugees from Afghanistan!”
In the latest prognosis for the federal election by election.de in constituency 64, the AfD leads, with a narrow margin ahead of the SPD, the CDU has fallen somewhat. For the Cottbus parties in the election campaign, these numbers are an important yardstick. Several campaigners from different parties confirm this – including Barbara Domke from the Greens. The city councilor herself ran for the state parliament in 2019. “If the democratic parties do not agree on a common candidate, then it is definitely possible that the AfD will get the direct mandate here.”