"Bring Back the Stasi"

Just as the LEFT (die LINKE)  party was beginning to see some  success in the state elections in western Germany, they have been dealt a serious blow by one of their own representatives:

"Christel Wegner, a member of the German Communist Party (DKP) and a parliamentary representative of the Left party in Lower Saxony, came under fire from all sides after advocating the return of former East Germany's dreaded secret police.

"I think that if a new society was created, we would need such an organization [like the Stasi] again, because we would have to protect ourselves against reactionary forces trying to weaken the state from within," she said on Thursday in an interview with Germany's ARD television broadcaster.

She also said that the Berlin Wall, which divided the city from 1961 to 1989, needed to be built in order to protect the East German economy from West Germans who wanted to cross the border to buy cheap goods."

Officials of the LEFT party - including Gregor Gysi - have condemned Wegner for her remarks and demanded that she step down from her seat in the state assembly.  But then Gysi made some wild accusations against the Verfassungsschutz (Federal Office for the Protection of the Consitution):

"Ich bin wirklich kein Verfolgungstheoretiker. Aber ich kann mir nicht vorstellen, dass eine DKP-Politikerin einfach so dumm ist, kurz vor der Hamburg-Wahl ein solches Fernseh-Interview zu geben, wohl wissend, dass sie uns damit schaden wird. Das heißt, sie wollte uns schaden. Und das sieht doch sehr komisch und eher nach Verfassungsschutz aus", sagte Gysi.

Comments

[Fritz]

If you are interested what wegner said in german:
http://www.trupoli.com/de/politiker/wegner_christel

[Axel]

Gysi's suspicion is absurd.

When the (mainly West German) WASG and the (mainly East German) PDS fusioned to form the Linkspartei, a lot of articles were published, all were about some old West German trotskists and DKP (Deutsche kommunistische Partei) members who now had the rather bizarre opportunity to get elected because of the collapse of the GDR and the unification. And even after this event, newspapers regularly published articles about the infiltration tactics of the old radical left. See, for instance, the Tagesspiegel article "Marx ist Muss" from 9/2/2007:
http://www.tagesspiegel.de/politik/deutschland/Linkspartei;art122,2371581

During the recent campaign in the West German state of Hesse, it was a member of the Linkspartei himself (!) who warned not to elect his party because of such political kooks:

"Karl-Klaus Sieloff, Direktkandidat im Lahn-Dill-Kreis, rät inzwischen von der Wahl seiner Partei ab. "In meinem Kreisverband haben Kommunisten und Anarchisten die Mehrheit übernommen, die wollen eine Räterepublik. Da ist Chaos angesagt", sagt der 58-Jährige SPIEGEL ONLINE. Eine solche Ausrichtung könne er mit seinem Gewissen nicht vereinbaren. In seinem Kreisverband würden Linke "von der untergegangenen DDR träumen", hatte er zuvor dem "Focus" gesagt."
http://www.spiegel.de/politik/deutschland/0,1518,528547,00.html

The original Panorama TV article (upper right corner - "Video") including additional material is freely available at:
http://daserste.ndr.de/panorama/archiv/2008/t_cid-4582812_.html

[Scott]

Wow, what a monumentally stupid and insensitive thing to say..... The Left Party's position is precarious--they need much more discipline if they hope to survive.

But then again, this is also a gotcha story. As a matter of pure theory, it isn't untrue that if a socialist society emerged in Western Europe, there would be forces from within and without trying to sabotage it.

But to actually say they'll need "something like the Stasi".... Well, at that point she pretty much gave up any basis for critisizing the eroision of civil liberties in liberal democracies.

[David]

Axel,

Thanks for the link to the Tagesspiegel article. It's funny that Lafontaine would get involved with these types. But now I can better understand the refusal of the SPD to get involved.

[gangstalking]

You think that this is insensitive to say, but what about countries that are actively doing this?

Has anyone heard Obama's plans for America if he is elected?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Df2p6867_pw

Does anyone actually know what is happening in democractic countries right now?

http://www.TheHiddenEvil.com

The Stasi is fully active in many democratic countries, they are just not called that or named that but the actions are the same.

Look up the term Gang Stalking.
http://www.GangStalkingWorld.com