AfD advertises with Willy Brandt and receives harsh criticism for it
New uproar in Germany over election advertising by the right-wing populist AfD: a party poster in Brandenburg featuring the likeness of former Social Democratic Chancellor Willy Brandt (1913-1992) is causing outrage.
"Referring to Willy Brandt is a gross abuse and simply obscene," the long-serving President of the Bundestag Wolfgang Thierse told the Daily Mirror Thursday.
According to the report, the party is using an election poster with a photo of Brandt and his slogan "Mehr Demokratie wagen" (Dare more democracy) ahead of the state elections on September 1. Brandt was head of government in a social-liberal coalition between the SPD and FDP from 1969 to 1974. He was SPD party leader for more than twenty years.
Thierse also once again criticized the right-wing populist party's reference to the GDR civil rights movement. "Equating the Federal Republic of today with the GDR of the past is an unbelievable trivialization of the GDR."
With slogans such as "We are the people!" or "Complete the turnaround", the AfD is running a campaign under the slogan "Wende 2.0". According to the party, many of the East Germans' hopes for the "first turnaround" (1989/90) have not been fulfilled.
Criticism was already hailing on Wednesday. Acting SPD chairwoman Manuela Schwesig, for example, said: "The mendacity of the AfD can hardly be surpassed."
In addition to Brandenburg, elections will also be held in Saxony on September 1 and in Thuringia on October 27. The AfD state chairmen of Brandenburg and Thuringia, Andreas Kalbitz and Björn Höcke, come from West Germany and had nothing to do with the peaceful revolution in the East. (SDA)
Photo: Tagesspiegel/Privat, via Twitter.com
