An announced television duel between the Thuringian top candidates of the CDU and the AfD, Mario Voigt and Björn Höcke, has sparked sharp criticism. Interior Minister Georg Maier (SPD) and Left Party state chairman Christian Schaft called on Voigt at the weekend to cancel the duel planned on a news channel on April 11th – the day the Nazi concentration camps Buchenwald and Mittelbau Dora were liberated. The minister accused the CDU state leader of using every opportunity to make democracy contemptible. “For decades it was clear among democratic parties: Nazis would not be offered a stage,” Maier wrote on Platform Anyone who offers right-wing extremists a platform normalizes their agitation.
In view of the chosen date, State Chancellor Benjamin-Immanuel Hoff (Left) spoke of an indictment that history has forgotten and a slap in the face to the hundreds of thousands who took to the streets for democracy and against the right. Left regional leader Schaft made a similar statement: “Anyone who offers the fascist Höcke a stage and then on the very day of the liberation of the Thuringian concentration camps Buchenwald and Mittelbau Dora is either ignoring Thuringian history or ego show is more important to him.”
However, the parliamentary managing director of the CDU parliamentary group, Andreas Bühl, defended the planned speech duel on X. It is important to bring Höcke into the light and to present the AfD’s content instead of avoiding the factual debate. April 11th is the right day because it warns where right-wing extremist ideas can lead. A new state parliament will be elected in Thuringia on September 1st. According to recent surveys, the AfD and CDU are currently the strongest parties in the Free State. Höcke’s party has been classified as right-wing extremist in Thuringia by the State Office for the Protection of the Constitution for some time.
On Saturday, 15,000 people demonstrated for democracy in Duisburg.
(Photo: Christoph Reichwein/dpa)
For weeks, thousands of people across the country have been demonstrating for democracy – and against the AfD. According to police, 15,000 people took to the streets in Duisburg on Saturday to promote diversity, cohesion and against right-wing extremism. This exceeded the registered number of participants by 5,000, as a police spokeswoman said.