German Parties, Successively Breaking Taboos

▽A Nationalistic Election Campaign=On May, the Prime Minister Schroeder had an open debate on patriotism with a popular writer, who was showing anti-Judaism, Martin Waltzer.

Waltzer is the one who made the Jews in Germany raged by saying, “The Holocaust was abused to Germans after the war as a ‘moral whip.” What is worse, he recently published a book called ‘Death of a Critic,’ which criticized a great man in German literature criticism and a survivor of the Holocaust Marcel Reich Ranich plainly.

The international news agencies reported that, in the past, it was considered as a taboo in Germany for the incumbent Prime Minister to openly debate patriotism with anti-Judaist before an election.

The Party Leader Schteuber asserted recently, “The Czech Republic must not be allowed to join the EU unless they repeal their policy of expulsion of Germans in Schdeten area in 1945.”

If we think about the fact that the German leaders in Schdeten area helped Hitler during the World War II, his speaking is like touching a ‘hot potato.’ Although they were expelled, it was a taboo to say that the Germans were the victims during the World War II.

The leader of a small opposite party, the Liberal Democratic Party, Juergen Moelman stimulated Jews by saying that ‘there are some responsibilities of Jews for the anti-Judaism.’

▽Analysis and Prediction=The German presses reported, “Germans want to get rid of the ghost of Auschwitz that weigh heavily on the latter half of the twentieth century before the beginning of a new century.” It is not a coincident that the boost level of the Coalition of the Christian Democratic and the Christian Socialists parties, which have stronger nationalistic color, is higher.

Since the gaining power of the right wing in Western Europe is becoming obvious, it seems to affect the trend of emphasizing the nationalism of each country.

The neighboring countries of Europe are not reacting to those changes sensitively. It is because there is a slim chance in Germany for the extreme right-wingers like Jean Mary Rupen of France to make rapid advance. Above all, unlike Japan, Germany clearly managed the after war problems by thoroughly apologizing after the World War II.

phark@donga.com