ConWatch: Week 1,792
Does Germany have a constitution yet?
German Officialdom really outdid itself this week, going to great lengths to bravely demonstrate the importance of avoiding the appearance of far-right nationalism while merrily embracing the substance of far-right nationalism. For in the Teutonic Imaginary, everyone needs to be schematized somehow — a Jew can only be weak, dead, or Israeli; all Nazis wear brown and goosestep — so as long as you are not a card-carrying member of the Alternative for Germany, you obviously can’t be a baddie.
Friedrich Merz, Germany’s probable next chancellor, said as much. After he horrified polite company everywhere by getting a non-binding resolution on migration passed with AfD support, he “regretted” that the “democratic center” wouldn’t hand over its hechsher for a binding version of much the same thing.
Because when you’re going about dismantling rule of law, at least make it look democratic. And by democratic, we don’t mean by working with the party that is now polling second nationally and on top in some parts of the country.
The parliamentary spectacle was a wonderful opportunity for Social Democrats and Greens — what some once generously called the “government” — to express moral outrage at the Christian Democrats’ leader. Lucky for them, Merz’s procedural calisthenics were a great opportunity to distract from their own dragnet of deportation and law-and-order dog whistling.
Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets to protest the CDU sleeping with the far-right making Germany look bad — and feel even worse about itself. We know this because, despite the uproar, a fair number of Germans told pollsters they are pretty OK with undermining EU law and post-war European unity.
Guess that freedom of movement thing is only good for getting to Mallorca.
Merz went on to make a veiled threat against the protesters’ fundamental rights, using similar language all of German Officialdom has regularly used to criminalize and delegitimize critics of Israel. Where is Niemöller when you need him?
To history’s great delight, all of this happened in the same week marking the shame that Germany is proudest of: Holocaust Remembrance Day. For lawmakers, the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau must have come as a welcome reprieve. Wallowing in a guilty past is so much easier than making up for it now.
Reading Conwatch is my morning prayer