Höcke uses a “strategy of self-trivialization”

The trial against Thuringia’s AfD state leader Höcke because of a banned SA slogan has begun in Halle. He had previously stated that he knew nothing about the ban. A political scientist does not find the argument credible.

daily topics: Thuringia’s AfD leader Björn Höcke thinks the banned SA slogan “Everything for Germany” is harmless. Does he say what many people think who cannot immediately identify the statement?

Dierk Borstel: That’s what someone who doesn’t know the statement might think. As a history teacher, I suspect he would certainly have known one of the three central slogans of the NSDAP and in this case the Sturmabteilung.

So it’s more of a strategy of self-trivialization to say: It’s just a small thing, don’t blow it out of proportion. There is a lot to suggest that there is a somewhat longer-term and more detailed strategy behind it. Namely, to get used to exactly such things. So that at some point there will be some kind of normalization effect.

“Get used to ethnic ideology little by little”

daily topics: What does this strategy actually look like?

Bristle: This is a strategy that slowly gets us used to ethnic, racist, and perhaps even National Socialist elements or sub-areas.

You can perhaps explain this with an example: If we imagine that we have a very strong gun lobby and that they tell us every day that security is only possible through personal, individual armament. If this gun lobby could manage to change things bit by bit so that we would believe that at some point.

On the one hand, we would probably arm ourselves. There would almost certainly be more violence and we would then support a policy that finances and promotes precisely this armament.

The AfD also pursues this idea: that we gradually get used to elements of ethnic ideology. That at some point it will be normal for us that they exist and that we can then make politics based on that. This is a strategy of cultural subversion with provocations on the one hand, but also working with a victim myth on the other so that we get used to it. So that a national politics can be built on it in the long term.

“The New Right thinks in long-term steps”

daily topics: Do you think Höcke and like-minded people can be successful with this?

Bristle: At least it’s not out of the question. Above all, it is a strategy that does not think about the short term, but rather the long term. This means that you always work with the means of provocation, so you proceed in two steps. And when there is a stop sign, as with the court proceedings, then you take a step back again, complaining and using the concept of victim. However, we have still made one step forward.

This New Right, to which Mr. Höcke is referring, does not think in terms of short legislative periods, but in very long-term steps towards normalization. And that’s why it’s a story that should be taken seriously, that also has historical precedents and, as we can currently see in the election polls, can certainly promise a certain degree of success.

“Höcke wants a different society”

daily topics: Höcke repeatedly emphasizes that he is simply behaving patriotically. How do you see that?

Bristle: I would now define patriotism as love for one’s own country. But in my view, what Höcke preaches are more ethnic ideologies. They often have a racist and misanthropic core.

He also says this very clearly: he wants a different society, he also wants to have a different population. And that’s not patriotism, but above all a lot of hatred towards other people.

“It is very important that we contradict”

daily topics: It’s about the limits of what can be said. How can this debate be conducted among colleagues or friends, even though some people argue the same way as Björn Höcke?

Bristle: First of all, we have to recognize this in the first place. We mustn’t get used to it. Of injustices, because they always precede misanthropy. And we must not get used to misanthropy either.

But it is very important that we speak out and contradict this. This doesn’t always have to be filled with content down to the last detail, but the contradiction alone means not giving this side the playing field. And what is very important to me: This works best when we authentically live our own values ​​- that is, values ​​of humanity, the idea of ​​the rule of law, democracy – in everyday life and get involved in such organizations. In other words, where democracy is alive and well organized.

Right-wing extremism is always a bit difficult. And this triad of not getting used to it, contradicting it and doing something about it – that’s what can also be crucial among colleagues.

The interview was conducted by Jessy Wellmer, tagesthemen. It has been shortened and edited for the written version.