Mob Protests in Chemnitz Show New Strength of Germany's Far Right

[ehrnst]

The city had never seen anything like this — and, to some degree, neither had post-World War II Germany. The rampage now stands as a high-water mark in the outpouring of anti-immigrant hatred that has swelled as Germany struggles to absorb the nearly one million asylum seekers who arrived in the country after Chancellor Angela Merkel decided to open the borders in 2015.

That decision sharply divided Germany, with critics soon arguing that Ms. Merkel’s administration had lost control of the situation. Three years later, what the government is struggling to control is an anti-immigrant backlash.

Neo-Nazis are growing bolder and stronger, and they are better organized, officials and sociologists say. The far-right Alternative for Germany party is a growing power in Parliament — another shock to the system — and has started to normalize angry sentiments about immigrants that before would not have been uttered aloud, bringing them into the mainstream.

In the face of this newly assertive far right, Chemnitz has become a test of state authority. Some say it has even become a test of Germany’s postwar democracy.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/30/world/europe/germany-neo-nazi-protests-chemnitz.html

[dalton99a]

1. The Hidden Russian Hand Behind Germany's Violent Right-Wing Riots

http://observer.com/2018/08/is-vladimir-putin-behind-right-wing-riots-in-chemnitz-germany/
The Hidden Russian Hand Behind Germany’s Violent Right-Wing Riots
By John R. Schindler • 08/30/18 12:31pm

While Germany’s right-wing surge is genuine, it bears noting that the Kremlin has aided the AfD’s rise. Russian state media regularly pushes lurid stories about migrant crime in Germany, to the benefit of the far right, embellishing such accounts and even inventing them out of whole cloth for political effect, while the AfD’s cozy relationship with Russia is no secret. Russian financial support for the party has included flying some of its leaders to Moscow on a private jet paid for by the Kremlin. In return, the AfD praises President Vladimir Putin and displays a regard for Moscow’s perspective that is strong even for Germany, where Russlandversteher (“Russia-understanders”) are found on all points of the political spectrum.

Russian intelligence has connections to right-wing hooligans in several European countries, Germany included. As I reported two years ago, there are detectable connections between Kremlin military intelligence, known as GRU, and football hooligans in Western Europe. Russia has forged ties to right-wing hooligans under the guise of sport solidarity, while some of Moscow’s violence-prone professional superfans, called ultras, are known GRU operatives.

Moreover, GRU, which has formed links with far-right activists across Europe, has been busy in Germany doing the same thing, as uncovered by the journalist Boris Reitschuster, who two years ago warned that Moscow was building secret cadres of German agents under the cover of sport. As Reitschuster explained, GRU employs Russian martial arts clubs to spot and assess potential recruits, to be used for future espionage and even attacks on German targets.

Is this what’s happening in Chemnitz this week? Gunter Pilz, a German academic specializing in the intersection of sport and extremism, explains that there is a real and growing problem here. “The new hooligan scene is quite clearly oriented to the right wing,” he stated regarding the Chemnitz debacle. “Unlike the hooligan scene in the 1980s, groups today are very well organized and networked,” Pilz explained, adding, “The scene is heavily dominated by Russian hooligans who organize martial arts events.” Some of them are proud of their part in the mayhem. Russian nationals have boasted about traveling to Chemnitz from Bavaria, arriving with baseball bats to help the right-wing protestors.

My friends in German intelligence have confirmed this, and they are concerned that GRU has stoked the right wing in their country and that Moscow is poisoning German politics with violence-prone extremists, some of whom are directly controlled by the Kremlin. “We can see links between Russia and some of the rioters this week,” a German security official told me, adding that the security services are concerned that the Merkel government does not take this threat seriously enough.

....

[2naSalit]

2. +1

[2naSalit]

3. That and don't forget

that Breitbart Steve has been on an extended shit-stirring tour careening around Europe this past year. So there's that.

[dalton99a]

4. Excellent point.