Perspective: ExtremismOutrage as Neo-Nazi Elected Town Council Leader in Germany
The unanimous election of a neo-Nazi politician in Germany as the head of a town council, thanks to votes from rival party members, has sparked outrage among senior political figures. Stefan Jagsch of the far right-wing extremist National Democratic Party (NDP) became the council leader for Waldsiedlung, in the district of Altenstadt, 30 kilometers (18 miles) northeast of Frankfurt, on Thursday. Jagsch was appointed with help from local members of German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU), plus opposition groups Social Democratic Party (SPD) and Free Democratic Party (FDP), prompting calls from these parties’ national leaders for the decision to be reversed. The Altenstadt city council members representing the CDU, SPD, and FDP said they had no choice since Jagsch was the only candidate on the ballot.
The unanimous election of a neo-Nazi politician in Germany as the head of a town council, thanks to votes from rival party members, has sparked outrage among senior political figures.
AFP reports that Stefan Jagsch of the far right-wing extremist National Democratic Party (NDP) became the council leader for Waldsiedlung, in the district of Altenstadt, 30 kilometers (18 miles) northeast of Frankfurt, on Thursday.
Jagsch was appointed with help from local members of German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU), plus opposition groups Social Democratic Party (SPD) and Free Democratic Party (FDP), prompting calls for the decision to be reversed.
According to regional public broadcaster HR, Altenstadt’s SPD leader Markus Brando said those at the meeting had been forced to elect Jagsch because there were no alternative candidates.
The NPD is one of Germany’s oldest and most well-known far-right parties, and has consistently been home to openly Neo-Nazi followers. Germany’s Constitutional Court ruled in 2017 that the party’s aims violated the German constitution, but that there were no grounds for a ban. Since then, the government has tried to block the party’s state funding.
The national and state-level leaders of the CDU, SPD, and FDP expressed their shock at the vote of their parties’ local representatives.
“Whoever lacks the political and moral compass and, as a democrat, makes such an irresponsible election decision cannot be accepted in the CDU,” Peter Tauber, a CDU member of Germany’s lower parliament for the State of Hesse, where Altenstadt is located, tweeted on Saturday. “The election of an NPD politician as local leader in Altenstadt with assistance from CDU” members “horrifies me,” he added.
This is not the first time that Jagsch, who, among other things, calls for the expulsion of Muslims from Germany, has made headlines beyond his region: In 2016, his life was saved by a group of traveling Syrian refugees when he was seriously injured in a car crash.
