The Federal Government’s commissioner for the East, Marco Wanderwitz, believes that many people in East Germany have still not achieved democracy.
Berlin – More than 30 years have passed since the fall of the Berlin Wall. Enough time for two formerly separate states to grow together and overcome all barriers. Or? The Federal Government’s Eastern Commissioner, Marco Wanderwitz (CDU), seems to have a different view, as he has now explained.
According to the CDU politician, there is a greater tendency among East Germans to vote for right-wing extremist parties than in the West, he said in a podcast in the FAZ. “We are dealing with people who are partially socialized by dictatorship in such a way that they have not reached democracy even after thirty years,” said Marco Wanderwitz. The Union politician continued: Part of the population has “solid non-democratic views”.
Incapable of democracy? Marco Wanderwitz passed a harsh judgment on many citizens in East Germany
Marco Wanderwitz has been the Federal Government’s new Eastern Commissioner since 2020. He succeeded Christian Hirte, who had to resign after a sensational comment. Hirte had congratulated the short-term FDP Prime Minister Thomas Kemmerich on the election in Thuringia, who had been elected by votes from the AfD. The incident was considered to be the first cooperation between bourgeois parties and right-wing extremists since the Nazi takeover and ultimately led to Kemmerich’s resignation.
The federal government’s new commissioner for the East, Marco Wanderwitz, is taking the opposite path, sharply distancing himself from the AfD and from right-wing extremist forces in East Germany. According to his assessment, a small proportion of the AfD voters “potentially recoverable,” he said in the FAZ podcast.
All that remains is educational work and hoping “for the next generation”, was Marco Wanderwitz’s harsh judgment of some of the people in East Germany. The CDU should not allow itself to be driven by the AfD and must focus on political competition with other parties, demanded the Eastern Commissioner.
