Trade unions
DGB leader Fahimi: The AfD is not a workers’ party
“The AfD is a party of racists that also wants to incite workers against each other instead of working together to achieve progress for everyone,” says DGB leader Yasmin Fahimi. photo
© Soeren Stache/dpa
According to Yasmin Fahimi, the AfD represents “classic neoliberal demands”. The DGB boss calls on unions to take a position – and from the traffic lights to “a policy that creates confidence”.
The DGB chairwoman Yasmin Fahimi has called for a tougher confrontation between the unions and the AfD announced. “We as unions will make it clearer than before that the AfD is not a workers’ party,” Fahimi told the “Augsburger Allgemeine”. “The AfD is not the friend, but even the enemy of the workers,” emphasized the head of the German Trade Union Confederation (DGB). In tax and social policy, the party represents classic neoliberal demands. “We as unions now have to name this much more aggressively,” emphasized Fahimi.
The DGB leader admitted that the unions had long underestimated the support of workers and employees for the AfD. “We have placed a lot of hope that the AfD will disenchant itself because this party is openly racist and nationalist, and even openly fascist to some extent,” said the DGB leader. “We as unions thought for a long time that it was obvious that the AfD cannot be a party for workers and employees,” she added. “That was probably too careless an assessment on our part.”
“We now have to better explain what this party stands for: The AfD is a party of racists that also wants to incite workers against each other instead of working together to achieve progress for everyone,” the trade unionist continued. Above all, the federal government is asked. “The best remedy against the AfD is a policy that creates confidence: good wages and a functioning state infrastructure with good schools, health care, service in the offices and security in public spaces,” said Fahimi.