Wanderwitz zu Zwickau: “Clear call to violence and murder”

After the court ruling that right-wing extremist posters were allowed to hang in Zwickau, criticism increased. The Federal Government Commissioner for Eastern Europe spoke in the daily topics of a “clear call to violence and murder”.

The court ruling on election posters of the neo-Nazi party “Der III.Weg” in Zwickau is causing sharp criticism nationwide. Marco Wanderwitz, Federal Government Commissioner for Eastern Europe, said in an interview with the daily topicsthat the decision “left him speechless”. He feared that “if we accept something like this, it will not be good for democracy”. It is a “clear call to violence up to and including murder”. The reaction of the constitutional state could not be “that these posters get stuck”.

Some are “the spiritual arsonists, the others those who feel called upon to commit these acts of violence”. “Democracy is vulnerable,” said Wanderwitz. The greatest danger to our country is right-wing extremism.

City Day horrified

The President of the German Association of Cities, Burkhard Jung, criticized the court decision in clear terms. The cities are appalled by the decision by the Chemnitz Administrative Court that the posters are allowed to stay for the time being. The city of Zwickau announced that it would appeal against this decision to the Saxon Higher Administrative Court. The posters “cross borders, are inhuman and endanger democracy,” said the mayor of Zwickau, Constance Arndt.

The election posters were “sheer agitation,” said Jung. He could not understand that the slogan was not banned. “In my eyes, this is not an expression of freedom of expression – it is a call for murder. A call to violence must not be tolerated in public space. This poster is not an election campaign, it is hate. That is a blatant violation of the basic political rules in our democracy.

Green with a creative solution

Meanwhile, the Greens announced that they would be sending out a poster campaign against the “Third Way”: According to the verdict, the Nazi posters may be hung – but only 100 meters away from the Greens’ election campaigns. That is why so many posters by the Greens should be hung that it is impossible to keep the 100-meter distance. In an action under the motto “Don’t let democrats hang”, members of the Saxon regional association were supposed to come to the city to hang up campaigns for the Greens.