Enlarge image
Rally for a free vaccination decision in Freiburg.
There were counter-protests.
The demonstration passed without any significant incidents.
Photo: Andreas Haas / imago images / imago images/Andreas Haas
At first glance, it seems to be just one of the numerous surveys and just one of the many numbers that we are bombarded with every day: The Institute for Public Opinion in Allensbach recently determined that 86 percent of Germans say that society has changed in the deteriorated in the last two years.
In a survey published by the »Welt am Sonntag« (conducted by INSA on behalf of the CDU/CSU group in the EPP parliamentary group), 23 percent saw the danger of a dictatorship in our country, and 15 percent were considering emigrating, according to the same survey , that would be almost 13 million people in absolute numbers.
And the chancellor, who knows neither "red lines" nor sees a "division in the country," recently said in all seriousness on ARD: "Germany is currently the most successful country in Europe when it comes to dealing with the pandemic."
Hopefully Olaf Scholz will not miss the opportunity to change course that the Prime Ministers' Conference in the Chancellery on Monday will offer him, to publicly admit that glossing over alarming developments will not help anyone.
The chancellor should refrain from the boring ritual of the press conference after the deliberations, because experience shows that the results he announces there are questioned at the same moment by one or more of the country heads.
Instead, why not address the population in a televised address to acknowledge the seriousness of the situation?
Because the corona crisis is now a veritable social crisis, it must not grow into a crisis of democracy.
In fact, skepticism is always appropriate when it comes to surveys and their results.
It's also easy to always use the questioning that fits the argument.
The large range of numbers makes this possible.
But the development reflected in the figures above, which are dramatic in every respect, should deeply worry every Democrat in this country.
In the meantime, it has become a much-used tool to reflexively declare the 23 percent of the people in this country who think they are on the way to a dictatorship to be cranks and crazy people.
It is much more difficult, however, to take a quiet moment to look at the number and at least try to answer the question of how it came to be that almost a quarter of our fellow human beings think so.
And why so many people, across all party political boundaries and regardless of whether they consider the corona measures sufficient or insufficient, regardless of whether and how often they have been vaccinated against the corona virus, see our social conditions deteriorating.
more on the subject
When Relatives and Friends Drift: Stop Fact CheckingA guest post by Dana Buchzik
Debate culture in the third year of Corona: The Germans are in mental quarantine An essay by Peter Maxwill
Saxony's Minister of Health on threats in the corona crisis: "These people have fantasies of overthrow" An interview by Milena Hassenkamp
But those who continue to ignore the social divisions that we all know not only from surveys but from our everyday lives in the face of such figures are playing with the stability of our democracy.
Of course it's a commonplace, but society is more than the state, it's us, each and every one of us with our behavior in everyday life and social relationships.
Therefore: All citizens, regardless of whether they hold political offices or only vote every four years, all people who live here are now called upon to put the blame game behind them and look to the future.
what to do
Ten concrete suggestions:
A first step would be
linguistic disarmament on all sides
: in politics, the media and at demonstrations.
Even if it sounds a bit military: our common enemy is Sars-CoV-2 and its mutations, not the state and not its citizens.
Neither are some Covidiotes, nor are the others sleeping sheep.
What is gained with such keywords, apart from negative attention?
Nothing.
It has often been demanded but never achieved: a
better culture of dispute and debate
.
Can't we at least try to refrain from all Nazi comparisons - also out of respect for the victims and the survivors!
There isn't a single example of such a comparison ever leading to anything other than the termination of the conversation.
And anyone who only sees Nazis, anti-Semites and Holocaust deniers in fellow human beings who do not share their own views may overlook the real Nazis, anti-Semites and Holocaust deniers, of whom there really are enough and with whom we have to deal.
It does not help
either to ignore social divisions or to encourage or condone them
.
Let's all try, especially the elite and privileged in this country who have a public voice, to step away from our own point of view for a moment and consider, for example, the situation of a single mother in Berlin-Hellersdorf, a cashier or a nurse, an unemployed person become an artist, a lonely resident or a person who has lost close relatives without being able to say goodbye to them.
Let's agree again that we
fundamentally reject any discrimination and any social exclusion of minorities as a means of politics
.
Our Basic Law has many ideals, and the principle of equal treatment is one of them.
Let's learn again
to accept the exercise of fundamental rights by other citizens
, even if we don't like their opinions or we have a completely different opinion.
Let us also see this as a benefit for our democracy, which must always be measured not only by its majority decisions, but also by the treatment of minorities.
Let us respect the fears of others, even if they seem exaggerated to us.
Let us respect the historically fought for and documented right of every individual to
bodily self-determination
.
Let's form a
round table
, moderated by Rita Süssmuth or another recognized personality, with the participation of all
social and child protection
organizations in this country and involving
children
, which will deal with their situation, also as a sign to the coming generation, the future of our country .
On the historic March 18th, the anniversary of the March Revolution in 1848 and the first free elections in the GDR in 1990, let's take to the streets together in Berlin, to a demonstration
registered by Annalena Baerbock and Sahra Wagenknecht, by Karl Lauterbach and Wolfgang Kubicki
- with participation as many social groups as possible that represent the whole diversity of our country.
Or ,
on May 23rd of this year, let
's celebrate a
common Basic Law
Day with civil society actions throughout Germany, in order to assure ourselves of the peaceful and free basis of our society, also in view of the figures mentioned at the beginning.
Let's form the
independent "freedom commission"
provided for in the coalition agreement immediately and convene it so that the commission will accompany all corona measures from now on and supplement the expert council.
And finally, in concrete terms: Let's grab our cell phones today and call one of those friends, work colleagues or teammates with whom we have lost contact in the past few months due to differing opinions on the corona crisis.
And let's ask him or her to do the same, so that a long telephone chain of understanding is created.
Let's try to get back into the conversation and be interested in each other's motives, no matter how absurd they may seem to us.
more on the subject
Battle for a common truth: The principle of the dead cat A contribution to the debate by Bernhard Pörksen
Let's discuss this ten-point program controversially but always constructively as a very first proposal to get back together.
Let's not reject it because of a single point or its title, because of numerous injustices or undesirable developments that have not been named, or simply because of its author, but rather make counter-proposals, make additions, develop something completely different.
Let's take the effort to build bridges seriously.
And let's sleep on it for a night - before we sarcastically comment on the whole thing on Twitter and shoot it.
Admittedly, it's so seductively easy to poke fun at the idealism or naivety of others.
But that would not do justice to the seriousness of the situation: see above.