AfD-Ausgrenzung zeugt von „politischer Infantilität”

#theblackchannel #afd #firewall A photo of AfD member Ulrich Siegmund and CDU parliamentary group leader Guido Heuer is causing a stir. Fleischhauer considers the outcry about a firewall absurd. A photo, a 27-second clip, and the same old uproar: Because AfD lead candidate Ulrich Siegmund and the CDU parliamentary group leader in Saxony-Anhalt, Guido Heuer, appear remarkably close at an event, the end of the firewall is already being proclaimed. For Jan Fleischhauer, the debate is above all one thing: wildly exaggerated. In the podcast "The Black Channel," the FOCUS columnist points out that the AfD is now polling at around 40 percent in Saxony-Anhalt. "So how do all these know-it-alls, who are now poring over a photo like this, imagine how exclusion is supposed to work in practice?" ...`# ] Anyone who expects CDU politicians to constantly distance themselves from AfD members of parliament is losing all touch with political reality. In fact, the video doesn't show a political rapprochement, but rather a brief moment between two politicians who regularly encounter each other. Heuer reaches for a microphone, Siegmund resists. The scene appears more familiar than it was probably intended to be. Fleischhauer considers it absurd to deduce from this the collapse of the firewall. "That's completely ridiculous," he says. Politicians from different parties work together every day, encountering each other in committees, at events, and in parliamentary proceedings. That there's sometimes laughter or a more relaxed atmosphere develops is nothing out of the ordinary. At the same time, Fleischhauer points to the way AfD members of parliament are treated in the Bundestag. There, their exclusion is practiced with particular consistency. He recounts the account of an AfD parliamentarian who, after entering the Bundestag, experienced colleagues demonstratively avoiding him. "So, if an AfD member of parliament steps into an elevator, the others will step out." For Fleischhauer, this is not an expression of democratic resilience, but rather of political infantilism. People can be political opponents and still interact normally. Fleischhauer is particularly critical of the statements made by Thuringian Interior Minister Georg Maier before the AfD party conference in Erfurt. An interior minister must protect freedom of assembly, not call for a party conference to be subjected to political pressure from the outside. Fleischhauer quotes Maier's words: "Protest is good. It will send a signal throughout the country. The images will speak for themselves." For the columnist, such an appeal sends a questionable message. In his view, those bound by the Basic Law should not give the impression that a legal party event should be disrupted as much as possible.