CHURCH leaders in Germany have urged voters not to support far-Right politicians, after the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) Party, which is currently ranked second in some states, was linked to plans for the mass deportation of non-German citizens.
“As Churches, we will not and must not remain silent; Christian faith and ethnic thinking do not go together, any more than the cross and the swastika,” the acting council chairman of the Evangelical Church in Germany, the Rt Revd Kirsten Fehrs, told a rally in Hamburg.
“Human dignity is inviolable, and every person on this earth has the right to a home, friendship, and peace. I hope further signs of diversity and freedom will follow throughout our country, as the majority breaks its silence.”
The rally was one of several staged last weekend against extremism and xenophobia, as well as the policy of “remigration” allegedly being considered by the AfD and other groups.
The Bishop of Limburg, Dr Georg Bätzing, who chairs the Roman Catholic German Bishops’ Conference, told a 3000-strong demonstration in Limburg that he also believed that calls for the mass expulsion of immigrants had “crossed a line” against “democracy, diversity, and tolerance”, in a speech echoed by other RC prelates.
“If members of right-wing groups and parties like the AfD trample on this foundation of our free coexistence, then we must oppose it with total determination,” the RC Bishop of Essen, Dr Franz-Josef Overbeck, told a meeting in Münster.
“Anyone wishing to deport other people denies their human dignity, which is firmly anchored, for good reason, in our Basic Law. . . The AfD has abandoned democratic principles and cannot be voted for by Catholics.”
Support for the AfD, which holds a far-Right position on immigration and ties with the European Union, has been strongest in Eastern Germany since its formation in 2013, although its overall vote dropped to 10.3 per cent in 2021 federal elections.
AfD members were reported to have discussed the mass “remigration” of non-Germans at a secret meeting in November with other far-Right politicians from Germany and Austria, drawing comparisons with a 1930s Nazi plan to deport non-ethnic inhabitants, and sparking calls for a ban on the party, although the AfD denied responsibility for the meeting.
In a weekend statement, the RC Archbishop of Hamburg, the Most Revd Stefan Hesse, who speaks on refugees for the Bishops’ Conference, appealed to German Christians to “position themselves clearly” against the Party, which is predicted to increase its vote in May elections to the European Parliament. He would, he said, personally join in demonstrations to ensure the country’s “free basic order”.
The regional bishop of the Evangelical Regional Church in Württemberg, Bishop Ernst-Wilhelm Gohl, told a gathering of religious leaders and top EU officials in Brussels last week that he feared a “strengthening of extremes” in the European elections in the face of “increasing polarisation and multiple crises”.