Segun Atanda/
German President, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, has sounded a grave warning that the growing influence of the far right and rising antisemitism threaten the very foundations of the country’s democracy.
“Never in the history of our reunited country have democracy and freedom been so under attack,” he declared during a solemn address on Sunday.
The date, November 9, holds deep symbolic meaning for Germany, marking the 1918 proclamation of the Republic, the 1938 anti-Jewish pogroms known as Kristallnacht, and the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall.
According to DW News, Steinmeier cautioned that Germany cannot afford complacency in the face of extremism.
“Simply waiting for the storm to pass and taking cover until it does is not enough,” he warned, calling on political leaders and civil society to take a firm stand against right-wing radicalism. “We must act. We can act!” he added emphatically.
In what appeared to be a pointed reference to the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), now the strongest opposition party in the federal parliament, Steinmeier insisted there must be no political cooperation with extremists in government or legislatures.
While stressing that banning a political party should remain a measure of last resort, the president maintained that it remains a legitimate democratic tool.
Any party that violates the constitution, he said, must be prepared for the possibility of prohibition, even if the far right brands such action as “undemocratic.”
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