New York Times on Right-Wing Ferment in Germany

Today's New York Times has a good article on the political climate in Germany in which the Christian Democrats (CDU) have come under pressure as being too liberal and progressive:

As anti-immigrant sentiment continues to sweep across Europe, generating a right-wing populist wave from the shores of the Mediterranean to the chilly reaches of Scandinavia, there is growing concern that such politics could take root here, too, in the fertile ground of financial uncertainty, rising anti-Muslim sentiment and a widening political vacuum left by the misfortunes of the once mighty Christian Democratic Union.

The discontent began with the bailout of Greece, which was very unpopular in Germany ( with the Bild-Zeitung fanning the flames of anti-Greek outrage) and boiled over with the publication of Thilo Sarrazin's book Deutschland schafft sich ab: 

But the nation’s political geography is being reshaped by strong gusts of discontent blowing in from different directions. Public resentments toward Europe were fanned by the German-led bailout of Greece, which Germans saw as paying for the profligacy and irresponsibility of others. At the same time, Germans, particularly younger generations, are feeling less constrained by their history and more comfortable in their national skin than at any time since World War II.

Into that environment came the book by the banker Thilo Sarrazin, “Germany Does Away With Itself,” which argues that the nation’s generous social benefits have attracted large numbers of Muslim immigrants who have refused to integrate. The book does not address any of the endemic obstacles to integration, like discrimination in employment and mediocre schooling, but instead labels Muslim immigrants as genetically inferior.

What is incomprehensible to me is that so many Germans feel that Sarrazin, and, to some extent, Erika Steinbach, are being "silenced" by the elites in Germany for expressing "politically incorrect" opinions.
How is a man who sells 600,000 books and who appears each night on the television talk shows being "silenced"?  

Still, I agree with the New York Times that this discontent on the right is unlikely to lead to a coherent political movement or a political party like the "Tea Party in the US. 

At the moment, no one here is predicting the rise of a successful right-wing party, but that is because the main ingredient is missing: a charismatic leader to rally the public. With such a leader, and some financial support, the prospect could take on a life, political experts said.

See also my blog post on the prospects for a German Tea Party as well as Der Spiegelfechter on the "Three Stooges" of the "Die Freiheit" party mentioned in the NYTimes article. 

Comments

[Zyme]

"How is a man who sells 600,000 books and who appears each night on the television talk shows being "silenced"?"

Why do you close your eyes so hard? You did notice that he is to be kicked out of his party, after he has been driven out of his job without having committed a single crime?

[David]

Well, the Vatican can ex-communicate whomever they wish from the Catholic Church. Why shouldn't the SPD have the same right to kick out someone who rejects the party's core values.

As for the Bundesbank, if Sarrazin had spent more time performing his duties on the Vorstand instead of working on his crude racial theories perhaps he would still be there.

In any case, no person in Germany has a bigger megaphone than Herr Sarrazin, so don't tell me he is being "silenced".

[Zyme]

Isn't it revealing that to explain what the SPD should be allowed to do you have to resort to the practices of probably the most undemocratic country in the Western world, the Vatican?

The SPD as a democratic party has to honor the basic rights of the individual and cannot exclude someone for being unfaithful.
The fact that its leadership tries to do so nonetheless is a major reason for the public solidarizing with Sarrazin!

As regards his job, you won't be surprised by the fact that many people writing popular books do in fact have other high ranking jobs too. Should they all be fired, too?

Sarrazin is not silenced yet, you are right on this one.

But isn't the political class trying its best to silence him? Without him having broken the law?

The fact that the established parties have been unsuccessful at silencing him is that people cannot be jailed for publishing provoking books here. Do you mean to say we should throw the rule of law out of the window to change this?

[David]

Again, Sarrazin should be completely free to publish or say anything he wants. And we should be free to criticize him.

Criticizing is not "silencing".

Thankfully, the hysteria concerning the man and his book seems to be dying down.

[Zyme]

My conclusion is that kicking somebody out of senior party and job positions is a great effort put into silencing him.

Btw, I will attend a lecture of him next week - I'm really looking forward to that ;)

When I entered the ticket agency on the first day of selling for his lecture, there were people entering and leaving the place constantly. Due to the amount of anticipated viewers, they have relocated the lecture from the house of literature to a riding hall. And still, I was one of the last to get tickets on the first day of selling :D