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Lower Saxony police opposes criticism of the AfD

2019-12-03T14:05:38.305Z


It is an unusual step: In Lower Saxony, the heads of all police authorities turn against criticism of the AfD - and formulate the suspicion that "managers should be intimidated".



The entire leadership of the Lower Saxony police has after persistent criticism of the AfD at the Oldenburg police president Johann Kühme publicly behind their colleagues. The action of the party could "in our view, only to pursue the purpose of political pressure on police executives in order to prevent them from their legitimate contradiction," said the chiefs of all police authorities.

"We strongly oppose this," the statement signed by the presidents of the Police Directorates, the State Criminal Police Office and the heads of other central institutions said.

Kühme had loudly police at an event criticized certain statements by leading AfD politicians. Literally he said: "I am ashamed as a German, if AfD politicians titled Muslim as a headscarf girls or the Nazis as a bird's shit in the millennial history." He referred to statements made by former party leader Alexander Gauland and Bundestag faction leader Alice Weidel.

The Lower Saxony AFD therefore accuses Kühme of violating the duty of political neutrality associated with his office. According to the police, their parliamentary group recently also introduced a parliamentary question, which raises this accusation. This process was the concrete trigger for the joint statement.

"With the will to contradict"

The leaders of the Lower Saxony police had the AFD request "very irritated, with amazement, but also with the will to contradict" noted, it said in the message. They shared the view that Kühme had "an expression of opinion that was covered by our constitution and that was permissible at all times", which they "fully agree with".

Kühme met with his remarks the "strategic goal" of the state police. This consists in preserving their "liberal democratic self-image" and countering anti-democratic tendencies.

In particular, politicians who "try to minimize the Nazism and its consequences, must be decidedly contradicted," said the chiefs of the National Police. Also, verbal discrimination such as women wearing headscarves would not correspond to the culture in the police and in Germany as a whole.

Kühmes attitude is also justified from a historical perspective. "Because the Weimar Republic failed not because of its opponents, but because of the lack of power of its supporters," said the chiefs of the state police. "It is therefore important to strengthen the democratic attitude of each individual in the police."

The AFD's request triggers the great concern that "in the future critical comments against right-wing slogans should be prevented and executives intimidated". On the other hand, they turn resolutely: "People can rely on the police, we take our oath seriously and live up to the values ​​of our constitution, as well as those of the constitution of Lower Saxony."

Source: spiegel

All life articles on 2019-12-03

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