Politics and society in the Dachau district have a massive problem. This is a hotspot for opponents of vaccination, corona deniers and believers in conspiracies. The supposed “strollers” confidently trample democracy underfoot. They regularly organize unannounced demonstrations and commit administrative offenses, while the police and authorities can only watch. They boldly shout “We are the people”, they mock corona deaths online and they play down the Nazi terror – and that in Dachau, of all places, where more than 41,500 concentration camp prisoners were murdered between 1933 and 1945. And they are getting more confident every day. They are radicalizing at a breathtaking rate. This is shown by the chat logs of local groups on Telegram. But the problem is not with the intelligence service. The problem is the people rushing there. Their hatred, which is discharged to politicians, journalists or parents who want to have their children vaccinated.
The phenomenon of this hatred did not only arise as a result of the corona pandemic. It was there before. And it would not go away if Telegram were blocked in Germany, as some politicians suggest. In fact, this demand only expresses the helplessness and lack of imagination of politics to counteract the division in society. It is intended to distract from the years of failure of politics in dealing with conspiracy believers, right-wing extremists, anti-Semites and racists.
The attempted hushing up of this problem has become a reflex in politics. The CSU, for example, tried a few years ago to ensnare potential AfD voters. CSU politicians suddenly had a populist sound that was previously only known from the AfD. The CSU realized far too late that this strategy was not working. And even now some politicians, including those in the Dachau district, would prefer to keep silent about the problem that lies behind the so-called “walks”. You do not want to irritate the vaccine opponents and pandemic deniers in the hope that they will disappear from the scene at some point. This is a dangerous wrong track – and a free ticket for the radicalization express.
It takes a clear edge. Many people in the Dachau district are already showing this. They gather for demonstrations to protest against “abuse of democracy”. And there are also politicians who position themselves clearly, such as the mayor of Dachau, Florian Hartmann. But many more politicians and actors from civil society have to follow their example.