Conflicts – Berlin – sociologist: protests aim against liberal democracy – politics
Berlin (dpa) – According to the sociologist Matthias Quent, the protests against the federal government in connection with the Ukraine war and high inflation will not be calmed by further relief alone. “A large part of the protests – we have seen that in recent years – are not organized out of material concern,” said the specialist for right-wing extremism and radicalization at the Magdeburg-Stendal University of Applied Sciences of the German Press Agency in Berlin. “The conspiracy ideological right-wing protests in particular did not demonstrate for social justice, equality or higher taxes.”
Leading politicians in the traffic light coalition, such as Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) and Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens), are being attacked more and more harshly in public appearances. So Scholz was recently bellied down during his summer tour in Neuruppin. The right-wing extremist splinter party Freie Sachsen wanted to hold a kind of show trial against Habeck on the market square in Heidenau, which the courts were forbidden to do.
Wherever top politicians like Habeck and Scholz appear, the AfD and various networks – “especially right-wing extremists, conspiracy ideology” – are active, Quent said. This is already known from the Corona demonstrations. “They stupidly manage to make their protests look like spontaneous citizen protests.” Although it is a democratic right to protest, there are also good reasons for it. “On the other hand, there is a kind of topic hopping by actors who actually have other interests, who ultimately want to abolish liberal democracy.”
According to Quent, the susceptibility to this is higher in eastern Germany than in the west. “On the one hand, the connection potential is greater here due to the more difficult financial situation and the inequality. On the other hand, the network and the actor landscape of those who can and want to exploit this crisis for their own purposes are well developed.” This is also the declared strategy, said Quent. It reads: “We take over the east and from there we attack the west.”
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