Posted by on February 18, 2020 5:04 am
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Categories: News µ Newsjones

REUTERS

ERFURT, Germany—A conservative regional politician, who’d been hounded online by the far right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party, was shot dead on his porch last June by a man who’d previously volunteered to hang AfD campaign posters.

The victim’s offense? He’d been filmed defending Chancellor Angela Merkel’s refugee policies as a matter of Christian and German values. Of course the AfD denied any responsibility, but for Germans who see in it the threat of resurgent fascism—indeed, Nazism—the murder of Walter Lübcke has remained a potent symbol.

Earlier this month, convoluted coalition politics brought members of the AfD together with Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union and the Free Democratic Party to name the governor of the state of Thuringia in former East Germany. The move was seen as an unprecedented and highly unwelcome neo-fascist breakthrough, a big win for a party previously considered completely toxic. People across the country turned out in front of state parliaments and party headquarters to protest, to chant, and in some cases to cry.

Read more at The Daily Beast.