Berlin politician René Stadtkewitz founded
the anti-Muslim "Freedom" party last Friday
(Source: Die Zeit)

RENEGADE ECONOMIST THILO SARRAZIN might not know much about genetics, but he sure knows his way around money. Last week the controversial economist, whose anti-immigrant book Germany is Abolishing Itself is topping all the bestseller lists, finally agreed to leave his no longer defensible position on the Board of Directors of the Bundesbank in Frankfurt after direct intervention by Germany’s president, Christian Wulff. In the end, Sarrazin did not take the Bundesbank to court, but he did take it to the cleaners: Sarrazin finagled an extra one thousand euros in monthly pension payments, the amount he would have gotten if he had stuck it out until his term ended in 2014. As it is, Germany’s best-known Muslim-hater and "Jewish gene" proponent, who has not exactly had to go begging so far and whose book has already sold over 400,000 copies in two weeks at 22,99 euros a pop, will be receiving a monthly pension check of 10,000 euros.

Sarrazin’s purchased departure may not be a pretty sight (although that golden parachute must twinkle beautifully in the early autumn sunlight), and yet it does clear the way for a new career, either as a professional pundit or a politician. At this point it doesn’t matter much that the semi-progressive Social Democratic Party, of which he is still inexplicably a member, has now also decided to push him out the hatch with no parachute provided. As long as his name remains in the headlines, Thilo Sarrazin can write his own ticket.

While Americans have been obsessing about their Tea Parties, “Ground Zero Victory Mosques,” Florida Quran burnings etc., Europe has been keeping a close watch as it continues its own rush rightward. The flurry around Sarrazin sounds dramatic at times, but only because the Germans are desperate to catch up with the continental shift that is already rocking Holland, France, and other countries. Anger is everywhere in Germany, whether it’s a question of taxes and pensions, chronic unemployment, the festering wound of Afghanistan, unpopular mosque-building projects, the government’s about-turn back to nuclear energy, or such infuriating local issues as the plan to build a massive and financially irresponsible train station in the heart of Stuttgart, the infamous “Stuttgart 21” project, which has mutated into the impromptu Tea Party and surprise cause célèbre of 2010.

 
Symbol of popular discontent:
Demonstrators take to the street to protest the
4 billion euro "Stuttgart 21" train station project
(Source: Der Spiegel)

For many weeks now, Berlin has been abuzz with talk of creating a new “respectable” party to the right of the ruling conservative Christian Democratic Union. With public satisfaction with Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government in sharp decline, the head of the Emnid polling institute, Klaus-Peter Schöppner, has recently identified a voting block of 20 percent who can hardly wait to vote for a right-wing (but non-Nazi) group. The last time anyone was talking about such an entity, the political system heaved and heaved and finally gave birth to the vulgar, abortive “Republicans” under the mismanagement of former Nazi (as in “former card-carrying member of the NSDAP”) and Waffen SS member Franz Schönhuber in 1983. The Republicans became just another crude far-right party and are now dwindling along with all the other spent efforts on the twilight edge of Germany’s radical political spectrum.

Today, Schöppner's voting block is starting to express itself. Weekend before last, the newspapers reported on a new Forsa survey stating that a startling 18 percent of Germans would vote for a new right-wing, anti-immigrant party with Sarrazin at its head. So far, the economist is too busy covering the talk show circuit - and cashing checks - to entertain any such notions, but the job is his if he chooses to take it.

Last Friday, local Berlin politician René Stadtkewitz formally proclaimed the founding of “Freedom,” a new far-right party on the model of Dutch neo-fascist Geert Wilders’ Freedom Party. Aside from telling Muslims where to shove it, what does “Freedom” want? Their main planks are a hard line against immigrants who refuse to assimilate, more prison time for criminals, and the abolition of hate speech laws (that appears to  be the "freedom" part).  According to co-founder Aaron König, “We are less social democratic than the Christian Democrats, much more liberal [pro-business] than the Free Democrats, and more of an anti-party party than the Greens.” Got that? From what I’ve heard so far, “Freedom” is just another word for hating Muslims.

 
Irreverent Polish caricature of Erika Steinbach
riding on the back of former Chancellor Manfred Schröder (2003)
(Source: Der Spiegel)

Also last week, Erika Steinbach, the rambunctious Bundestag member, chronic troublemaker, and president of the Federation of Expellees (the pressure group of Germans expelled from eastern Europe after World War II and their descendants) got herself expelled from the executive board of the Christian Democratic Union after publicly stating that the Second World War was actually a defensive war on Germany’s part since Poland mobilized first. (I think she really believes this.) While Steinbach intends to remain in the Bundestag and in the CDU for now, the controversy over yet another public figure to be denounced for stating a politically incorrect opinion will likely drive more voters rightward. If there is to be a new far-right party, Steinbach would be a natural-born leader.

Will this potential ever congeal into a coherent political program and a competent leadership? New parties have a hard time in Germany, where the constitution requires them to overcome a "five percent hurdle" before they can enter the state legislatures and the Bundestag. The improving economy probably won't do Stadtkewitz & Co. much good either. But the problems the new New Right are focussing on are genuine and are not going away. For years I’ve believed that the far right in Germany will not have a chance until it loses its vulgarity. While millions despise and resent Muslims, few citizens want to be associated with swastikas and skinheads. Thilo Sarrazin, a Mr. Respectability who is not afraid to express reactionary opinions, may represent a new prototype for a right-wing politician. If it isn’t him (and, like I said, there is no clear sign that it will be), I suspect there are many more figures like him preparing to rise to the occasion. If you build it, the new New Right appears to be saying, they will come.