Are we facing "Wurwinter"?
Warning of new extremist demos - traces of Russian propaganda
Created: 08/08/2022 05:20
By: Bettina Menzel
The Federal Minister of the Interior and Homeland, Nancy Faeser (SPD) on July 25 in Kyiv.
© IMAGO/Ruslan Kaniuka/Ukrinform
The German Office for the Protection of the Constitution warns that the energy crisis and high inflation could be used by enemies of democracy to mobilize and incite people, as was the case with the Corona protests.
Berlin - Difficult times are the ideal breeding ground for extremists who seem to have simple answers to complicated problems.
Brandenburg's head of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Jörg Müller, warns that extremists could exploit the energy crisis and high inflation for their purposes.
The Office for the Protection of the Constitution and Interior Minister Faeser see danger from enemies of democracy
High energy prices and inflation are putting a strain on households in Germany.
As in the Corona pandemic, enemies of democracy apparently see this as an opportunity.
"Extremists dream of a German winter of anger," said the chief of protection against erosion of the
world on Sunday
.
“They hope that the energy crisis and price hikes will hit people extra hard to pick up on the sentiment and publicize their anti-state aspirations.
We follow this activity with watchful eyes and open ears.”
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Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser had already expressed similar concerns last month.
"Of course there is a risk that those who already shouted their contempt for democracy during the Corona period and were often traveling side by side with right-wing extremists will try to misuse the sharply rising prices as a new mobilization topic," said the SPD politician at the time to the
Handelsblatt.
In an interview with
Welt am Sonntag
, she added : "Enemies of democracy are just waiting to abuse crises in order to spread fantasies of doom, fear and uncertainty." Such circles are currently looking for new topics with mobilization potential.
"What has already connected right-wing extremists and various other scenes in the Corona protests remains the common denominator: contempt for democracy and the attempt to shake trust in our state," she said.
At the same time, Faeser emphasized that the police in the federal state with the federal states were "prepared for the possible new protest events".
Rise of extremists: How the blame game works
In the 1930s, too, the mood in Germany was gloomy: the global economic crisis had the country firmly in its grip and unemployment was high.
This promoted the rise of Adolf Hitler and his party, the NSDAP, who quickly found simple "solutions" and supposed "culprits".
The instinct to blame seeks to find a clear and simple reason why something bad happens, writes scientist, physician, and statistician Hans Rosling in his book Factfullness.
People looked for culprits because otherwise the world would be perceived as "unpredictable, confusing and scary".
It was similar with the corona pandemic, when some extremists and lateral thinkers doubted the existence of the virus and instead believed in a global conspiracy.
"This instinct that makes us look for culprits
undermines our ability to form a true, fact-based understanding of our world,” writes Rosling.
It weakens our ability to solve problems.
The lateral thinker movement initially lost popularity – is the rise coming again?
After most of the Corona measures were taken, the lateral thinker movement lost popularity.
But one thing remained: the distrust of many people towards the "media, scientific and political elites", as shown by an analysis by Sven Reichardt, Professor of Contemporary History at the University of Konstanz.
Russia's attack on Ukraine was quickly exploited by the scene.
Pro-Russian positions were propagated and, for example, the Russian state broadcaster RT was mentioned as an alternative to the so-called "mainstream media", as a spokesman for the Baden-Württemberg State Office for the Protection of the Constitution told the dpa.
According to the Schleswig-Holstein Office for the Protection of the Constitution, media and cyber-supported operations aimed at influencing the formation of local opinions about Russia's acts of war can also be observed.
Currently, the majority of pro-Russian messages and the spread of disinformation are being observed in certain Telegram channels in the lateral thinker scene.
This was announced by the North Rhine-Westphalia Office for the Protection of the Constitution and also reported fake videos intended to influence the mood in favor of Russia.
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With rising energy prices and high inflation, the scene now has a new theme to mobilize the masses.
According to experts, the destabilization of Europe - also through hybrid warfare - is one of the goals declared by Vladimir Putin.
The Kremlin wants to "increase social tension in our societies," says military expert Carlo Masala about Putin's tactics.
Holding the population together would now be the more effective solution.
In order to avert the gas shortage in winter, consumers would have to save 20 percent, demands Federal Network Agency head Klaus Müller.
Former Federal President Joachim Gauck believes that “people can also be trusted”, as he told the
Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung
said in May about the gas crisis.
In view of the Ukraine war, the politician considers the willingness of the population to accept personal deprivation to be great.
Gauck believes that if politicians take the trouble to discuss difficult issues in detail with the population, then people could accept the sanctions and hold out for a long time.
