In summer, Joachim Gauck had advertised in the SPIEGEL conversation for an expansion of tolerance in the right camp inside. The statement triggered a medium-sized controversy at that time. Now, the former Federal President has again expressed his views on the AFD - and found clear words. He considers the alternative for Germany to be a superfluous party.
"I have no sympathy for the AfD or other radicals, which can never choose and even consider them dispensable," he told the "New Osnabrücker Zeitung". At the same time, however, he warned that the voters of the AfD should not be labeled as fascists.
What needs to be done is a form of tolerance that does not simply bite off: "Okay, you're like that, and I'm like that." Tolerance can also mean, "I fight with those whose ideology I reject, but do not see them as enemies," stressed Gauck. Enemies are those who foment hatred or even resort to violence.
"Other protestors, however, or" Wutbürger "vote once on the left, sometimes on the right, or they do not vote." But they are part of an open society that has to endure difference. "It is important to accept this and not live in the expectation that at some point all people would have a completely unified concept of democracy," said Gauck.
Steinmeier: To draw clear boundaries of endeavor
His successor Frank-Walter Steinmeier also commented on the question of protestors. He called on the incumbent parties not to lose that voter group. Steinmeier said in the Berlin "Tagesspiegel": "I do not see anyone who is frustrated and regards their election as an expression of protest as an opponent of democracy." On the contrary, I warn against losing entire groups to democracy he has already written off democracy. " Most voters had recently voted in favor of the AFD in the provincial elections in the East in protest against the ruling parties.
Fabian Sommer / DPA
Frank-Walter Steinmeier: "Marking the border more clearly than before and also enforcing it"
Steinmeier went on to say, "We also have to work for those who disagree." If they feel that local politics are present and the problems and needs are recognized and worked on, then trust grows. "But I also see clear limits to this endeavor, namely, exactly where the limit to contempt for human beings and violence is exceeded, we have to mark and enforce this border more clearly than before - in the network as well as in the schoolyards and marketplaces."
Enough of the "daily contempt"
He called for a sharp demarcation against enemies of democracy. "It makes me stunned, after crimes such as the murder of Walter Lübcke or the attack in Halle, to see some secret joy." Steinmeier added: "Anyone who has a sense of understanding for murder and violence is complicit."
The President said he was "sorry for the daily contempt of democratic institutions and their representatives." He expected "by the silent majority, (.) Finally to be loud and to take a position".
