Boycott call
Jasmina Kuhnke cancels book fair appearance due to right-wing publisher – more celebrities will follow
Jasmina Kuhnke on death threats: “Hope that it’s just my turn and not my family”
© Marvin Ruppert
The author Jasmina Kuhnke has canceled her appearance at the Frankfurt Book Fair. She is protesting against the presence of a right-wing publisher. In the meantime, other celebrities have shown solidarity.
A booth of publishers of the New Right at the Frankfurt Book Fair led to a controversy shortly before the fair’s official opening. Author Jasmina Kuhnke, known by her Twitter pseudonym “Quattromilf”, canceled her appearance at the book fair at short notice. The reason is the status of a right-wing radical publisher. In the meantime, other celebrities have joined the campaign. Actresses Annabelle Mandeng and Nikeata Thompson as well as influencer Riccardo Simonetti have also announced their cancellation on Instagram.
The Anne Frank educational institution expressed its solidarity with the author Jasmina Kuhnke in a statement. “It is a disaster for our culture of open debate when those affected by racism, anti-Semitism and misanthropy withdraw from the Frankfurt Book Fair, the largest debate fair in the country, because they don’t feel safe there,” said Meron Mendel, director of the educational institution.
The reason for Kuhnke’s rejection is the booth of the Jungeuropa-Verlag. He had boasted about being present right next to the ZDF stage. In a message from Kuhnke it says: “The publisher of Junge Europa is Philipp Stein, a right-wing extremist. … Stein is the head of the right-wing extremist joint project” One percent for our country “and in this position has already publicly written that I should be deported.” It is foreseeable that other right-wing extremists would also visit the fair. “What makes the danger clearly visible to me personally,” writes the author.
Director of the Frankfurt Book Fair defends decision
Book fair director Juergen Boos defended the decision to allow the right-wing extremist publisher to stand. Freedom of expression is a valuable asset, he emphasized. “The book fair is the place that stands for it. And unfortunately we also have to endure opinions or the presence of people who I would not necessarily like to have here.” The book fair stands for this discourse that is as open as possible. “We will always have the full spectrum here, as long as people want to show themselves here. But we don’t have to like it. But it has to be possible because for us freedom of expression, the freedom to publish, is the highest good.”
The presence of new right-wing publishers had already led to protests and a demonstration in 2017.