Commentary Over A Article

 Yesterday....I was referred off to the Gatestone Institute site, to a piece written by Drieu Godefridi....entitled: "Towards a Left-Wing Reich in Germany?".  You can read the entire piece here.

There's five discussion items....which I'll discuss my observations over.

 1. The Classification of the AfD by an Administrative Agency.

Earlier this year....the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV, Germany's domestic intelligence service) sat down and identified the political party Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) as a "right-wing extremist" organization. By doing so....a set number of things play into play....mostly watching them more closely.

For those who don't know the AfD.....they were created out of thin air by 3 lawyers....in 2013....mostly as a fringe group to drag Germany back to the D-Mark (the lawyers figured out that roughly 10-percent of all Germans hated the Euro....felt screwed over by the transition.  Oddly enough....they were correct.  Election wins showed they could pull 5-to-10 percent in elections.

Then as the migration business started up in 2014....by 2015....the party was taken over by members....kicking the 3 lawyers out  of what they created.

The focus since 2015?  Mostly anti-immigration, opposing the path set  by the SPD, and the CDU-CSU.   Currently?  They control  around 25-percent of the public vote, and make life difficult for creating a coalition (no party will form with them).

 As for BfV having the right to monitor them?  Look....there's a couple  of indicators to suggest some element leads back to Russia.  I'm not saying they are pro-Russia....just that Russian agenda falls into play, and BfV feels compelled to monitor them. It would worry BfV if there was a  Chinese angle to them, as well.

2.  Repression of Free Speech: The Criminalization of Dissent

This free speech chatter wasn't a big deal until social media came along. Article 5 existed since the late 40s....to give Germans the right of free speech.  However, there's all this 1930s BS....that the Germans have to  contend with....which comes out on hate-speech, and incitement.

Laying out free-chatter? Germany is like a science lab....where you have five Elon-like scientists always in a developmental stage...never noticing 2 additional scientists in the room. The two oddballs are a bit  'wild' and 'crazy'....pushing the developmental stage to the extreme. It's like bringing up the SPD idea....allowing 16-year olds the right to vote.

 So they are always worried over this 1930s era returning. 

Isn't incitement always brewing? Well...that's another odd element. People think of incitement as a physical violence thing, but it can go down different paths. Chancellor  Merkel in 2014....led a path of incitement for a majority of Germans  to accept refugees and migrants. People saw everything in a positive way of incitement....until 31 December 2015 (the Koln event).  

Incitement can be achieved in various ways, with some positive, and some negative.  But that fear of 1930s incitement is what dwells on the minds of most politicians.

3.The Quarantined Area: Institutionalized Directed Democracy

In simple terms....all  other parties in the Bundestag are agreed....no participation with AfD. When they were at the 10-percent point...it wasn't a big deal. Now at 26-percent....it  makes government changes more difficult.

Let me inject this in a odd way....from 1949 to the early 80s....there were basically two big parties (SPD, CDU) with a combined situation of 80-percent.  Two or three other parties existed with 20-percent. Things were simple. Today, the SPD and CDU  together....won't match more than 45-percent combined.

Coalition-building is extremely difficult and bickering constantly occurs. By saying AfD is quarantined....the real size of the Bundestag is 74-percent (not 100-percent).

4.  The Ban Talk

Well...yeah....certain elements  want  AfD banned from politics.  The question is....if you dissolve them....what happens to the 26-percent of voters?   Do they see  the ban action similar to what the Nazis did in the 1930s?  

Some folks see the ban chatter as being unhelpful, and possibly making matters worse.  If AfD were to reach 35-percent?  I'm likely to think banning would be a high priority, and page one news for 6 to 12 months. 

5.  Finally, The Shadow of the Reichstag Fire

I'm one to suggest of the five big events since 1800....to change the path of the country....this event is one of those events.

The fire comes about 5 weeks after Hitler becomes Chancellor.....early 1933.

This 24-year-old Dutch communist drifter.....Marinus van der Lubbe arrested? When the police found the guy....he was near-nude...in some daze....acting irrationally, and based on the description....I'd say drugged-up (this was an era where a lot people from around the world....came to Berlin for sex or drugs).

The communist angle?  For a brief period (Nov 1918 to Apr 1919), there was a little civil war going on in Bavaria, with communists coming close to achieving success.  A lot of Germans in the 1930s....still saw the bigger threat in life...not so  much the Nazis, but the communists.

As for the fire?  It's never been settled.  The Dutch guy ended with blame...was executed for it.  This opening up a door for Hitler to go hardline?  There's no doubt that this incident triggered a lot of crap over a short period of time.

Someone trying believe that some incident like this today could occur? If you said Russian drones being used to fire-bomb some German refinery....yeah, a 1933-type event could be recreated.

The commentary was worth reading, but all of this is mixed into a recession period....with Germans desperate to see a exit-door and some recovery process starting up.