In Germany, according to recent polls crediting the far-right organization with 19 to 22% voting intentions, the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) is in the air. A sign of this change in the country is the resurgence of far-right gestures and speeches in schools, with teachers resigning.
The political and back-to-school climate in Germany is tense. Ahead of the summer break, many teachers have requested transfers. They denounced neo-Nazi symbols in their colleges. Finding no support, they wanted to leave.
A year ahead of crucial European and regional elections, the far-right German party has become one of the country’s largest political parties, ten years after its formation.
In recent polls, the party now ranks second nationally (19 to 22%), ahead of President Olaf Schaals’ Social Democrats and the conservatives (26 to 27%), currently in opposition.
“Condemn Leftist Professors”
Hélène Myard-Delacroix is Professor of History at the Sorbonne, specializing in Germany. Invited to Tout un monde, he analyzes these events.
“We have pressure from the AfD on students and parents to ‘reprimand teachers whose views do not conform to the left and their vision of how the world should be. For now, these are isolated cases. Don’t do that. Be a trend”, says the nuances expert.
But for her, the incident is “very revealing of the way the main political parties and especially the AfD – which is on the line of the struggle for culture, ‘Kulturkampf’ in German – interferes in the school. The school is a weak link, a weak link.”
“Basic German people invaded”
The historian observes that the school has become a new political arena for some parties. According to him, the AfD sees the institution as a laboratory where the various tensions of an increasingly diverse and multicultural society are played out, highlighting the violence of some groups and the inability of others to integrate. The ‘fundamental’ German people suffer, that is ‘invasion’.”
In response, he believes, “teachers don’t want to play this line.” “There is concern on the part of teachers to see society’s problems entering their schools, especially this question of anti-Semitic, neo-Nazi signs. From time to time, we see reactions from angry teachers. A common phenomenon, but they are about the tactics of the far right and the concern of those in charge of our children. are signals.”
So the environment is not good. “There are a lot of concerns in Germany. (…) Until then, political scientists analyzed the referendum for the German far-right as a protest (…) put forward by the far-right”.
“We see a change concerning many European countries: ideas and projects of the extreme right against immigrants, racism and climate skepticism, are gaining points as part of society”, he concludes.
Interview by Céline Tzaud
Web Adaptation: Julian Furrer
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