Imagine the headlines if right-wing politicians in Germany were starting to bar left-wing candidates from running for office, and doing so just three weeks after a mob of right-wing extremists had chased and beaten left-wing journalists in the streets
The New York Times would likely splash the story across its front page with a picture of the attacked reporters. The Washington Post, which says “democracy dies in darkness,” would warn of the return of fascism to Germany. And CNN and MS NOW would broadcast days of coverage of the story and demand the immediate capture of the violent individuals.
Many would quote the victims. “It was like a hunt,” said Marius Marx, an Apollo News reporter who was beaten by a mob. ”They didn’t treat us like fellow human beings. They just thought we were political enemies… that it’s morally correct to kick us.”
They would quote the Member of Parliament (Bundestag) Martin Sichert, who a local election committee on July 21 barred from running for his county’s top executive position, similar to mayor.
“I was shocked,” he told Public. “I’ve lived here my whole life and all my teachers at school told me that we have a working democracy and freedom of speech and now I’m just banned because I’m a member of a party that the other parties don’t like.”
They would note that many had spent years dehumanizing the people who were attacked as “far right.” “There were 30,000 people,” said Jonas Aston, another beaten Apollo News reporter, “and the message to them was, ‘You can punch them! You can hunt them! It’s okay.’”
And yet there has been no mainstream media coverage of these events in the U.S., and surprisingly little in Germany.
There’s no question that this is a major news story. “This is the first time that an election council has canceled a candidate because of political reasons,” said Sichert of the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) party. Election councils banned two AfD mayoral candidates last year, but they at least cited specific, ostensibly non-political reasons.
“I was shocked,” he told Public. “I’ve lived here my whole life and all my teachers at school told me that we have a working democracy and freedom of speech and now I’m just banned because I’m a member of a party that the other parties don’t like.”
On July 4, just hours before the leftists hunted and beat Aston and Marx, they and thousands of other protesters had tried to prevent them from holding a party convention.
The illegal blockage of the AfD meeting, and the failure of local police, forced its members to show up at 3 a.m. to get inside. Of the roughly 31,000 protesters, the police had estimated that over 2,000 were prepared for violence.
Meanwhile, the individuals who could have beaten Aston and Marx to death remain free.
And Sichert isn’t alone. “We know of 14 candidates who [election councils] wrote to beforehand and said, ‘We are highly concerned about you, and we invite you to the electoral council’ [to defend themselves].” Another AfD mayoral candidate, Reinhild Goes, may also be banned from running.
