Euroscepticism is taking hold even in
the country at the heart of the European project. And one of the continent's
chief Eurosceptics, British politician Nigel Farage, has become an idol to some
young Germans - to the consternation of many others. For rebels, they appear
extremely polite, are impeccably dressed and display a distinct lack of
piercings or tattoos. Germany's Junge Alternative (JA), or Young Alternative,
may be dissidents - a Eurosceptic youth movement determined to overturn
Germany's long-standing pro-European orthodoxy - but they are very conservative
ones, advocating a crackdown on immigration and crime. One of the main reasons
for people joining the JA is that we try to speak and think without political
correctness” End Quote
Sven Tritschler JA chairman, North
Rhine-Westphalia , In fact their stance has earned them a particularly
bad rap from the national press. In the short year since the group's launch last
June, the JA have repeatedly been accused of being "too far right", politically regressive and
anti-feminist. The organisation is linked to the country's first Eurosceptic
party in decades, the Alternative fuer Deutschland (AfD), or Alternative for
Germany, which wants the euro broken up. But it remains an independent movement
and even the groundbreaking AfD regards it as something of an unruly offspring.
"The media sometimes portray the AfD as far-right and, because we are more
direct and more right-leaning than the AfD, we're seen as extreme-right - but
that's not the image I have of us," says Sven Tritschler, the JA chairman for
North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany's most populous state. The state's biggest
city, Cologne, was the starting point for the AfD's European election campaign
on 27 April. A fifth of all party members are based in surrounding North
Rhine-Westphalia, and the AfD is hoping to further increase its support
here.
No comments:
Post a Comment