Merkel’s lockdown: a plot to destroy German culture?
Germany may be easing its lockdown, but the country’s “corona-sceptics” still aren’t happy, said Fabienne Kinzelmann in Blick (Zurich). A protest against state-imposed restrictions in Stuttgart on 9 May drew some 10,000 people – a motley crew of conspiracy theorists, political extremists and vaccination opponents, swelled by people who fear their rights are being infringed in the name of science. Similar demonstrations have been held in Munich, Berlin and Dortmund. They’re being fuelled by far-right activists and C-list celebrities spreading conspiracy theories about 5G masts and secret forces working to install “a new world order”. It’s sheer “idiocy”, said Kinzelmann. How can you be “sceptical” of a pandemic that has killed hundreds of thousands around the world, even if Germany’s death toll has been low?
The protests actually started among far-left groups in Berlin, railing against the pharmaceuticals industry and what they call a “dictatorial hygiene regime”, said Nadine Lindner on Deutschlandfunk (Berlin). But it looks as if “the revolution is eating its own children”: protests now attract anti-Semites and the far-right. Somehow, protesters manage to present government policies intended to save lives as being motivated by “malice and hostility”. The same conspiratorial logic was at play during the 2015 refugee crisis, said Alexander Görlach in Deutsche Welle (Bonn).
Then, extremists believed that Chancellor Angela Merkel’s welcome to Syrian refugees was a plot to destroy Germany’s culture. Now, growing numbers of Germans believe that “those up there” have evil motives: even some senior Catholic clergy have claimed the lockdown may be a prelude to a “world government”. The populist “poison” that was once confined to the fringes has now infected the mainstream.
Fears among some protesters that vaccinations will one day be made compulsory aren’t necessarily groundless, said BR 24 (Munich): German law does provide for such an eventuality. But ministers think the vast majority of Germans will be vaccinated voluntarily. The threat from a few “confused” people shouldn’t be exaggerated, said Frank Jansen in Der Tagesspiegel (Berlin). Most Germans have confidence in the government, and if an election were held tomorrow, Merkel would win handsomely. As for the minority, we must win them round with reasoned debate, calmly dispelling the lies. After all, “every soul lost to the fanatics is one too many”.