So the AfD, the far right Alternative for Germany has broken into mainstream politics in Germany taking third place behind the German equivalent of New Labour and Merkel’s CDU. Some people are asserting that Angela Merkel’s policies have created the conditions under which the AfD gain legitimacy. However, what we have to remember, is that people with these far right views have existed all the time. The majority of Germans may have moved on from the brutality and insanity of Nazi Germany, but there is still a significant minority of people who fear the influx of non-German culture and cling to those ideals at least in part.
For me this doesn’t show some kind of mistake in Merkel’s policy, but rather this shows that the dark past in every society is still there, lurking, waiting for the opportunity to break out and expose itself, just like the mould you though you had banished that comes back to blight your possessions.
I don’t think Germany’s links with Nazism can be forgotten, let alone broken. I’ve seen the USA and the UK tripping over themselves to present this image of a new tolerant nation, which is probably largely true, but given time the mask will slip fully, and it is already slipping. Who can cure this sickness? Surely God alone.