Martin Hess
Left-wing Extremism
German Bundestag, January 18, 2019, Plenaprotokoll 19/75,
pp. 8773-8775
[Martin Hess is an Alternative für
Deutschland Bundestag member and a police officer from the southwestern German
state of Baden-Württemberg. He here introduces a motion to urge the government
to take more effective measures against left-wing extremism. Andrea Nahles is
national chairman of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) of Justice Minister
Katarina Barley is also a member. The BGH (Bundesgerichtshof)
is the German supreme court. Frank Magnitz is an AfD Bundestag member and AfD
chairman leader in Bremen.]
Right honorable Herr President. Right honorable ladies
and gentlemen.
Permit a remark before entering on the motion itself. The
AfD has always sharply condemned every form of extremism, whether it be left,
right –
Benjamin
Strasser (FDP): Obviously!
- or Islamist. We must nevertheless acknowledge
right-wing extremism to have been proceeded against in appropriate ways and
Islamist extremism met with an avowed determination, even though here there are
yet more suitable optimal requirements. It is only left-wing extremism which is
scarcely opposed by the state. Thus this motion is necessary. Since left-wing
extremism - of this can and must there
be no doubt – is a massive threat to our demcoracy, for our society and for our
security forces.
In 2017, the number of violent acts of left-wing
extremist background increased 37.2 percent. 69 percent of these acts were
directed against police and security officers. We all remember the scenes
similar to civil war at the G-20 summit in Hamburg. Marauding left-wing
extremists moved through the streets. In a rage of blind destruction, they set
fire to vehicles and barricades. They bashed in window guards, plundered
businesses without restraint and attacked security forces with paving stones
and precision-fired steel balls. The leftwing extremists were so far gone in
their cynicism that with full intent they coaxed police officers into ambushes
to attack them there with pavement slabs and Molotov cocktails. Only with the
assignment of special units and the transfer to Hamburg of all serviceable
police forces from across the country could the situation be overcome. During
that time, 231 police officers were wounded.
Right honorable ladies and gentlemen, it has become time
to call things by their names. As a police officer and as a politician, I say
to you in all ernestness: that is no longer left-wing extremism, that is
left-wing terrrorism.
Dear left-red-green colleagues – that I direct also to
part of the media: who with rocks, drills and iron bars proceeds against police
officers is and always will be a violent criminal.
That the Linke, Grünen and SPD in light of such facts
refuse as before to acknowledge the terrifying dimensions of left-wing
violence, that they indeed immediately mitigate, relativize and misrepresent
it, that the government is unable to undertake effective measures against
left-wing extremism, is – it must be clearly stated – a declaration of
bankruptcy by this parliament.
Frau President Lau, Frau Minister Barley and the
colleagues Högl, Göring-Eckardt, Hofreiter, Özdemir, Riexinger, Kipping have,
together with the Interventionist Left, signed a proclamation which was
directed at our democratically elected party. The Interventionist Left is
besides partly responsible for the outbreak of violence at the G-20 summit.
According to the federal government, it also played a substantial role in the
excesses in the Hambacher Forest where police officers were massively attacked
with stones, bottles and feces. Just to recall: the situation there was so
serious that a colleague could only be rescued with a warning shot. The
Interventionist Left is thus uncontestably an anti-constitutional organization.
One does not cooperate with an anti-constitutional organization; it is to be
banned and right quick.
The inability of the federal government to combat
left-wing extremism leads to ever more numerous and heavier attacks upon the
offices of the state. I will give here a few examples.
In April 2018, left-wing terrorists repeatedly stoned a
police wagon in front of an occupied house in the Rigaer Strasse in Berlin. On
Indymedia they called for further stone throwing and there wrote, I quote:
The pigs patrolling the city are nothing more to us than
contemptible subjects whom we allow…to patrol into danger
In August 2018, left-wing terrorists stormed the Berlin
Senate’s justice administration and there threatened an advisory leader.
In December 2018, left-wing terrorist committed an act of
arson at the 5th criminal division of the BGH in Leipzig.
The federal government is not in the position to oppose
with effective measures this massive left-wing danger for our democracy and our
society. Not once has it closed down the internet platform on which the
terrorists publish their followers’ posts. With a simple change of web domain
the left-wing extremists circumvent the ban of the interior minister and again
spread their anti-state and cynical propaganda, lately even a sabotage handbook
in which is supplied guidance on the destruction of the lives and property of
members of the AfD, to the point of – one must for once present it – the lethal
throwing of heavy stones from highway bridges.
Right honorable ladies and gentlemen, there must finally
be an end to that. We must combat these enemies of state and men with
consequences and all firmness and must not, like some politicians on the left,
ignite with aggressive rhetoric this left-wing extremist violence. SPD vice Ralf
Stegner on 8 May 2016 on Twitter wrote:
The fact remains that the positions and personnel of the
right-wing populists must be attacked
Cem Ödemzir stated before the Bundestag election:
In one week it could be that for the first itme Nazis
again get into the Bundestag. Is that not occasion to say…we want to do
everything so that this rabble has no say in this country?
Thereby I might wish to remind: when on the 11th of
September of last year Bundestag President Schäuble urged the rejection of
left-wing violence as well as that of the right, you, right honorable ladies
and gentlemen of the Linke, the SPD and the Grünen refrained from applauding
for this minimum of democratic consensus. That is a quite unequivocal
indication of where the real enemies of democracy sit in this parliament,
namely on the left.
Andrea Nahles’s chief of staff, Angela Marquardt, in the
SPD organ Vorwärts on 7 September 2018 wrote: “For the combat
against the right, the SPD also requires the Antifa.” In your combat against
the right – make note, not against right-wing extremism but against the right,
a fully legitimate current of democracy – you have not the least scruple about
coordinating with groups which the constitution defense associates with
violence-oriented left-wing extremism. That shows us quite plainly that for you
it is indeed not about the defense of our democracy but only the primitive hold
on your power –
Ulli
Nissen (SPD): Nonsense!
- and your
financial means, right honorable ladies and gentlemen.
Matthias
W. Birkland (Linke): You really live in a parallel world!
The sowing of your verbal attacks on our party is
sprouting. An explsoves assault upon an AfD public office in Döblen only
produced no wounded or killed because no one was in the vicinity.
Matthias W. Birkland (Linke): How many assaults on
refugees have there been in the past year?
And a few days ago our representative Frank Magnitz by an
assault to the head was severely wounded. From this podium, dear Frank, I wish
you – I hope not only in the name of my delegaton – a good improvement and
speedy recovery.
(Applause
from the AfD and members of the CDU/CSU and FDP)
Colleague Magnitz is however by no means an isolated
incident. Our party leader in Rheinland-Pfalz, Uwe Junge, in August 2016
suffered a broken cheekbone as the result of an assault and kick to the face.
The Bundestag member Kay Gottschalk was attacked during a national party day in
Hannover and his hand was severely wounded. Our homes have been damaged, our
vehicles burned, our offices demolished.
Thereby is the democratic discourse in this country
restricted and the freedom of opinion, always one of the central pillars of our
democracy, massively attacked. It is the duty of each convinced and upright
democrat to resolutely oppose this left-wing extremist aggression.
Show that you ernestly believe in real democracy. Show
too that you are committed to the freedom of opinions which contradict your own
opinions and may even be difficult to bear. But it is precisely that which
demonstrates one is an authentic democrat.
Should you continue to allow left-wing extremism and
terrorism to endanger our democracy and our society, then each additional
assault, each additional wound and – may God forbid – each future death shall
be on your account.
Canan
Bayrau (Bündnis90/Grünen): Shamelessness!
That we must prevent. The time of talk is definitely
past. Now action must be taken. I therefore appeal to you to vote for our
motion.
Ulli
Nissen (SPD): You can forget it!
[Translated by Todd Martin]
