Well what would you have done?
They are shoveling the snow out of the driveway when about 30 people appear and openly call for an argument.
Escape into the house?
Calling the police?
Drive the bunch away with the shovel?
Michael Kretschmer decided to talk to him on Sunday in his place of residence Großschönau near Zittau.
The Prime Minister of Saxony put the shovel aside, pulled up the zipper of his jacket - and first listened.
An almost half-hour YouTube video documents what happened next.
The outrage has been widespread since then: The Green State Justice Minister Katja Meier described the incident at the head of government's house as a “taboo breach,” State Parliament President Matthias Rößler from the CDU demanded consequences.
The »Süddeutsche Zeitung« recognized the action as an »early stage of the authoritarian furor that drove a pack of Trumpists in Washington up the stairs of the Capitol«.
Everything is right.
And yet more can be drawn from the incident than outrage and frustration: No matter how many mistakes Kretschmer may have made in the pandemic policy, in the dispute in front of his house he pretty much got everything right.
And the video of the incident shows how even people without government responsibility can deal with right-wing mobsters, arch-conservative relatives and pseudo-intellectual conspiracy ideologues.
1. Hello first: be constructive and friendly
A conversation can hardly start more harmlessly: “Good morning,” says Kretschmer as if from a choir, one wishes a happy new year, then a man with glasses and a gray beard presents the group's request: “We want that the lockdown is ended as soon as possible, that is our main wish. "
Kretschmer replied politely and factually, initially a comparatively constructive exchange of words developed, even the police later wrote of a conversation "without any special incidents".
Why should the CDU politician break off this conversation right at the beginning?
Even later, when the first participants rant about a "system of fear and scaremongering," he does not give up - and rightly so.
2. Wait a minute: insist on the rules of dialogue
Of course, you don't have to and shouldn't allow yourself to be offered everything, and neither does Kretschmer.
Several times he asks people to talk to each other, sometimes he gets louder: "Quiet," he says to a man in the course of the roughly 20-minute conversation.
"Before we both talk further, go to a nursing home and find out more."
A little later, when someone claims that no one has died from Corona so far, Kretschmer becomes even clearer: "Stop talking nonsense like this!"
It would be more than understandable if Kretschmer broke off this conversation in exasperation, but he remains steadfast - perhaps because at this point there is still legitimate hope that the exchange on this Sunday morning will at least bring something to some of the participants.
It would also be problematic to break off such a conversation simply because the other person is talking obvious nonsense: How should conspiracy ideologies be contained or humanistic ideals spread when nobody is fighting for it anymore and trying to convince other people?
3. Wait a minute: be careful
Kretschmer tries bravely to persuade the increasingly angry pack to have a civilized conversation.
“Is there anyone who still has a serious question?
Or are there just screamers? ”He asks once, and this actually leads to another debate.
But why does Kretschmer have all this offered on a Sunday in front of his family's house?
On the one hand, that's been his style for a long time, and he's always looking for a conversation with vehement opponents of his politics.
On the other hand, he obviously recognizes that morning that there is no acute danger from the uninvited guests: People are standing on the street, nobody attacks Kretschmer physically, neither weapons nor other potentially dangerous objects can be seen.
Kretschmer later told the dpa news agency that he did not see the situation as threatening: "It is important to me to talk to people in the hope of convincing them." Nevertheless, Kretschmer finally ended the conversation, for good reason.
4: Stop it: keep your distance from extremists
A situation that cannot be seen in any of the photos leads to the end of the conversation: Kretschmer asks a woman that she is pulling a scarf in the colors of the war flag over her face and accuses her of being a "citizen of the Reich."
A man claims that this has nothing to do with Nazis, whereupon Kretschmer waves his hand and leaves.
It may be that the Prime Minister could have recognized earlier what kind of people were gathering in front of his house.
On a poster, for example, there was the following slogan: "Whoever engages in genocide has forfeited his or her right to life!" are interested in arguments but only in spreading their ideology.
It is therefore extremely dangerous to offer such people a stage, to invite them to discussions or to put a microphone in front of them.
Michael Kretschmer did not invite the people in front of his house, he did not let them get away with their untruths and did the only right thing: he ended the conversation.
In doing so, Kretschmer basically adhered to the rules that have long been laid down in a similar form in the terms of use and netiquettes of online forums and social media: discuss yes, but only up to certain limits.
In the real world, these rules are even more important than on the internet: Right-wing freaks on Facebook can be muted with one click, right-wing freaks at family celebrations cannot.
The incident in the Saxon town of Großschönau also shows what the simmering debate about "speaking with rights" has been suffering from: some demand maximum willingness to engage in dialogue from all sides, others consider any attempt at dialogue with rights to be toxic.
The truth, however, is more complex, because when dealing with armed neo-Nazis or right-wing extremist professional politicians, the same can of course not apply as when chatting with the arch-conservative great-uncle at Christmas.
Some people are receptive to right-wing propaganda, but they are also open to factual arguments - that's what it's all about.
More uncomfortable dialogues are needed so that democracy does not lose them.
Michael Kretschmer failed this time with this resolution.
But it was definitely worth the try.
Icon: The mirror