The invitation of far-right fraternity members and activists to the Bavarian state parliament by members of the AfD triggers a stir in political Munich. According to a report by Bavarian Radio At an event in the parliament restaurant last week, among the 50 or so guests were members of the Identitarian Movement (IB) and the Danubia Munich fraternity. Both are classified and observed by the State Office for the Protection of the Constitution as right-wing extremists.
A photo by a reporter who was present shows how two men show the so-called white power gesture at the celebratory evening, in which the thumb and forefinger are formed in a circle and the other fingers are spread out. In the neo-Nazi scene, the WP gesture is a symbol of “white power” or the supremacy of the white race. Right-wing extremists celebrate in the House, to the Place of democracy in Bavaria?
The deputies Christoph Maier and Ferdinand Mang, both of whom are assigned to the camp of the formally dissolved ethnic “wing”, had invited to the evening, not the AfD faction itself Representatives of various student associations. There was a tour of the house and a “festival pub”, a ritual of drinking, speeches and songs. The fraternity scene itself is diverse and not necessarily right-wing extremist. But this is certainly the Danubia.
The report by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution lists their roughly ten-strong activists, i.e. the members who are currently studying, under “other right-wing extremist organizations”. In the concepts of the Identitarian Movement, on the other hand, the State Office sees analogies to the “blood and soil ideology of National Socialism”. Danubia and IB in Bavaria point to research by Süddeutsche Zeitung personnel overlaps.
A journalist reported being harassed
The state parliament administration announced that after Maier had registered the appointment, “the police presence in the building was increased into the night”. Everything was quiet until about half past ten, shortly afterwards a journalist reported that guests were harassing them: Together with a police officer, the situation was first explained and “in particular the guests were informed that journalistic activity should not be prevented in any way”. A criminal complaint was later filed against an unknown person for coercion. The reporter had also photographed the racist gesture. You can read the letters W and P out of it, White Power – but also classic O and K, okay. A tightrope walk, especially if you want to provoke.
“As much as I fight against anti-democratic attitudes and as difficult as it is for me personally, the constitutionally protected right to a free mandate also means that MPs can receive visitors of their choice in the state parliament,” said Ilse Aigner (CSU), President of the State Parliament. One is “an open house for the citizens of Bavaria”. In order to ensure security, visitors would “be subjected to a security check – but not an attitude test”. She had warned AfD man Maier in advance that she would not accept a process that was not trouble-free. “That’s exactly what happened, so I’ll check to what extent I can ban such events in the future.”
Maier told the SZ that a comparison of the participants with objects observed by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution “is not appropriate, since the Bavarian state parliament serves as a ‘place of democracy’ for the democratic exchange of opinions”. He could not provide any information on the alleged coercion of the journalist “due to a lack of reliable knowledge”, he only found out about it through the reporting.
The right-wing extremism expert of the SPD, Florian Ritter, called for the AfD to be banned from public events in the state parliament. He wrote on Twitter that it was “unacceptable that the AfD invites enemies of the constitution to the Bavarian state parliament and that fascist symbols are shown here”. According to Ritter, the AfD parliamentary group must also be observed by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution. The state office had observed three AfD MPs as individuals during the election campaign and at the beginning of the 2018 mandate. However, this was soon stopped – because of the high hurdles to protect the free mandate, as set by the Federal Constitutional Court in 2013.
The incident fits into “a long series of parliamentary dam breaches,” according to the Free Voters
Fabian Mehring, the parliamentary director of the Free Voters, said: “The fact that the AfD specifically invites right-wing detonators to the Maximilianeum to hold court there with extremists shows what kind of spirit this parliamentary pickle troupe is.” That goes with “a long series of parliamentary dam breaches”, “the enemies of our constitution” have “entered the very heart of our democracy”. The FW had recently been accused of a lack of differentiation from the AfD after the controversial demo speech by Economics Minister Hubert Aiwanger in Erding.
According to Mehring, the AfD must be observed in its entirety by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution. He also suggests that the president of the state parliament “make use of her domestic rights and exclude all persons who are being observed by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution from access to the state parliament.” According to reports, this should be legally difficult.
When asked by the SZ, a spokesman for the AfD in the state parliament only confirmed that it was not a faction event – and therefore “no public statement could be made”. In AfD circles, it was also snippy on Tuesday that it was not at all clear who had disturbed and coerced whom in the incident; possibly “little things would be exaggerated”. And maybe the people with the gesture just wanted to signal “everything okay”.