Xenophobic and allegedly discriminatory incidents have occurred at several carnival parades in the past few days. At an event last Thursday in Landsberg am Lech, several men on the Landjugend Hohenfurch parade float are said to have chanted “Foreigners out” to a song by the Italian DJ Gigi D’Agostino. A video of this was widely shared on social media.
Following a complaint, the police are now investigating charges of sedition. Both the municipality of Hohenfurch in the Weilheim-Schongau district and the Schongauer Land rural youth district association announced in a statement on the municipality’s homepagethat racism and discrimination are condemned and that everyone is welcome in the community: “In Hohenfurch, almost six percent have foreign citizenship. The people from around 20 nations are well integrated.”
The press spokesman for the local carnival association Licaria, Thomas Bihler, told Bayerischer Rundfunk that he and the association are calling for “active action against any form of extremism. Society must be a place of openness, solidarity and respect, and resists its beginnings “.
It was only in January that xenophobic slogans were also shouted to the Italian DJ’s song after an AfD party conference in a disco in Greding. Two AfD members of the state parliament were also part of the group, but they denied having chanted such slogans. The police are also investigating this case.
Last Sunday, at a parade in Kempten, a poster with the racist slogan “Germany is attacking everywhere, so the whole jungle crowd sings in the choir” was displayed on a tractor. A spokesman for the Swabia South/West Police Headquarters told the SZ that they were investigating the initial suspicion of a crime. However, the spokesman was unable to specify exactly what the suspicion was. It will also be checked whether slogans were shouted or racist songs were sung from the car. First, those responsible for the vehicle in question should be interviewed. Several media outlets reported that there was also a safari-looking car attached to the tractor.
Another incident occurred on Sunday a week ago at the so-called tractor rally in Sachsenkam in the Bad Tölz-Wolfratshausen district. According to media reports, a car was part of the procession whose crew had black faces painted and were wearing water wings. The car, which according to media reports depicted an overcrowded ship, drove under the slogan “No to mass asylum accommodation in Warngau/Holzkirchen”.
In Warngau, the Miesbach district is planning refugee accommodation for 500 people in addition to a waste recycling plant. Many locals feel overwhelmed by this, while others criticize the location of the planned accommodation. At a citizens’ meeting last week, CSU district administrator Olaf von Löwis was met with violent protests. He ultimately had to be escorted out of the hall by the police.