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AFD's new MPs in Saxony-Anhalt are quite original (thelemmy.club)
submitted 1 day ago by to c/germany@feddit.org
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[–] 2 points 13 hours ago (4 children)

You can say a lot about the current government, but authoritarian they are not.

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  • [–] 1 point 8 hours ago

    Well,

    1. cutting transparency laws
    2. enabling the secret service to act on the information they have instead of having to cooperate with the police
    3. re-enabling forced military conscription of the youth

    Yeah it's not an authoritarian regime yet, but the direction also isn't promising. And some people in the government absolutely can be called authoritarian. Most prominently the Innenminister Dobrindt. One of his first speeches in the current legislative period contained the following:

    Die Sicherheitsbehörden sind schon zu oft unter den Generalverdacht gestellt worden, sie könnten etwas falschmachen. Wir müssen Schluss machen mit den Kennzeichnungspflichten, den Kontrollquittungen und den Beschwerdestellen, die eingeführt worden sind. Unsere Sicherheitsbehörden, sie haben unser Vertrauen verdient. Sie machen nicht alles falsch. Wir geben ihnen die Chance, dass sie bei dem, was sie schon alles verdammt richtigmachen, in der Zukunft noch mehr richtigmachen dürfen. Das ist die Aufgabe.

    Which translates as follows:

    The security authorities have too often been put under a general suspicion, they could be doing something wrong. We have to put a stop to the duty of identification, receipts of controls, and the complaints office that have been introduced. Our security authorities have earned our trust. They do not do everything wrong. We give them a chance, so that they are allowed, with all that they already do correctly, in the future to do even more correctly. That's the task.

    If this is not textbook authoritarian mindset I don't know what is. Trust the police, remove accountability, even in the face of an ongoing streak of occurences in rightwing networks in the police force, and claim, all they do is good and well.

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  • [–] 1 point 8 hours ago* (2 children)
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  • [–] 2 points 8 hours ago (1 child)

    There's a lot to unpack here.

    I disagree with the current handling of Pro-Palestine protests. They rarely hold up in court though.

    The ICC case however is politics and bogus at that. Nicaragua wanted to issue a statement. The case is without content and will likely be dismissed from what I've gathered. Also Nicaragua is pro Russia so kind of the devil's advocate.

    Yes cou can be sentenced for a few statements. The cases are limited though. Germany has no right of free expression, but to free opinion. Insulting someone is not covered. The only opinion you may not express are those deliberatly made to insue hatred or denial of the holocaust. Both of which have been clearly limited by the federal supreme court in its legality and its scope. Arguing that Germany is hence an unfree or authotarian country is simply a shallow conclusion. The right of free opinion has been taken to its limits over the years and is not abitrary or secret. Both of which I would deam necessary for it to constitute authotarianism.

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  • [–] 1 point 6 hours ago

    I disagree with the current handling of Pro-Palestine protests. They rarely hold up in court though.

    Just to unpack this: the handling of the protests are the actions of the government, the courts are explicitly not. So losing in front of the courts is not making the government look any better, the opposite is the case. It makes them look even worse.

    How do you think is this a defence against the claim that the government is authoritarian?

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