The German mainstream might just have used its most laughable excuse yet for disregarding the democratic will of the public—and there’s certainly some tough competition.
Sabine Reinknecht was elected the AfD deputy mayor of Bad Salzuflen, in North Rhine-Westphalia, last Wednesday. Now, the Left Party faction in the area—which got just 5.38% of the vote in the election, compared to the AfD’s 19.02%—is pushing for her removal on the ‘basis’ that she might frighten off tourists.
Local paper Lippische Wochenzeitungquotes the Left’s mayoral candidate, Kim Neef, as saying:
Bad Salzuflen is a cosmopolitan, tourist-oriented city—and we want to show that to the outside world.
Neef also stressed that “anyone who represents a city like Bad Salzuflen must stand for democracy, openness and diversity” (emphasis added). The absolute gall of it.
The AfD’s Mainz-Bingen branch bashed the Left for “babbling on about democracy here,” stressing:
Elections are to be respected and not reversed at the whim of the Communists just because the result doesn’t suit them.
On the federal level too, of course, President Frank-Walter Steinmeier has suggested the AfD could be banned in order to protect… democracy, drawing criticism even from figures outside of the (for now) opposition party.
AfD co-leader Alice Weidel hailed Reinknecht’s election as “a sensational success that once again proves that democracy cannot be stopped by firewalls.”
Herzlichen Glückwunsch an Sabine Reinknecht (AfD), die künftig Vize-Bürgermeisterin von Bad Salzuflen sein wird. Ein sensationeller Erfolg, der einmal mehr beweist, dass sich die Demokratie nicht von Brandmauern aufhalten lässt. Ich wünsche viel Erfolg & gutes Gelingen im Amt! pic.twitter.com/RsDZ1XACIS
It also proves that the party is doing well in the west, not just in the east. So it’s no wonder that the establishment is working hard to undo it.
The Left is relying on a section of the North Rhine-Westphalia Municipal Code that mentions the “removal of deputy mayors.” It is also appealing to “all democratic factions”—meaning the CDU, SPD, Greens, FDP, and a handful of independents—to reverse the election.
The AfD, for its part, says that it will “take all legal steps to defend the democratic vote of the council.”
Michael Curzon is a news writer for europeanconservative.com based in England’s Midlands. He is also Editor of Bournbrook Magazine, which he founded in 2019, and previously wrote for London’s Express Online. His Twitter handle is @MichaelCurzon_.
