The other day Angela Merkel held a forum in the eastern city of Stralsund - a stronghold of the neo-Nazi Alternative for Germany party (AfD). An AfD local politician confronted the chancellor, accusing her of instituting a "dictatorship" and suppressing freedom of expression in Germany. Her calm response to this outburst was impressive, and shows that she really is still the leader of the free world .
As Christian Stöcker writes in Der Spiegel, the AfD politician espouses a völkisch worldview that at its root is totalitarian:
Es handelt sich um die Ideologie des Völkischen. Sie besagt, ganz verkürzt, dass es so etwas wie ein genetisch, nicht etwa geografisch oder rechtlich definierbares "deutsches Volk" gibt. Dieses "deutsche Volk" ist per se besser als die übrigen "Völker". Weniger kriminell zum Beispiel. Kriminell sind vor allem die Ausländer! [...]Hat man diese Ideologie von den überlegenen Volksdeutschen, über die man nie so richtig öffentlich reden darf, erst einmal verinnerlicht, sieht die Welt plötzlich ganz anders aus. Man selbst ist im Besitz einer ewigen Wahrheit, fast alle anderen leben in ständigem Irrtum. Das Verhältnis entspricht dem von religiösen Fanatikern und "Häretikern", Ungläubigen.
(This represents the völkisch Ideology. It maintains, in short, that there exists a genetically - rather than geographically or legally - determined Geman Volk. This "German Volk" is better than other Volk. Less criminal, for example. It's the foreigners that are criminal!. Once one has embraced this ideology of the superior German Volk - about which one cannot speak openly, the world suddenly seems very different. One is now in possession of an eternal truth - everyone else is living a lie. This behavior resembles that of fanatics and "Heretics", or apostates).
What must have enraged the AfD politician was Angela Merkel's calm support for democratic pluralistic society. Pluralism is anathema to the völkisch worldview:
Tatsächlich hat die AfD mit gesellschaftlicher Pluralität ein großes Problem, Pluralität und völkisches Denken schließen einander nämlich aus.
(In fact social plurality is huge problem for the AfD. Plurality and the völkisch mindset are mutually exclusive.)
Even though Angela Merkel is viewed as something as a lame duck chancellor at this stage, there is no one else on the world stage who is as effective in standing up for democratic principles,
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