Jockgrim, Markt Schwaben or Rott am Inn – these places represent protests against asylum accommodation. And for the feeling that politics is ruling over people. More citizen participation doesn’t solve the problem, but something else does.
Selective perception is a subtle thing. You don’t need a lot of it and things are fine again, or at least not hopeless. Selective perception is when you see what you want to see. And quite a few have recently watched with relief as people go out to demonstrate against right-wing extremism and for democracy. But because selective perception is a blinder, the hundreds of thousands in Berlin, Hamburg and Munich have obscured their view of smaller places called Jockgrim, Markt Schwaben or Rott am Inn, where people are also protesting. Against asylum accommodation that is to be built in their communities. And that makes things complicated: for democracy.