Since the coronavirus pandemic, the war in Ukraine and the war in the Middle East, times have changed faster than ever before. After we had all relied on the comforts of our economic strength and controlled world peace for far too long and warlike conflicts or economic problems were a distant prospect, we in Germany have now had to wake up from our slumber. It is understandable that these problems unsettle and frustrate people. However, it is incomprehensible that this frustration has turned into hostility towards democracy and that people are blaming our democratic system, which has brought us peace and prosperity for more than 70 years, rather than the individuals involved.
For far too long, the democratic majority has done nothing to counteract an anti-democratic minority that has been using pawn catching, xenophobic slogans, fantasies of deportation and false Germanism and would-be patriotism to win votes. Fortunately, things have changed. The revelations about a second “Wannsee Conference” have finally torn off the mask of the extremists and revealed their true colours. Although the intentions of these political forces were known for a long time and were never actually concealed, it took this one event to make the parallels to a time believed to be long gone become vivid.
And the democratic majority of people in Germany are standing up! The democrats are standing up and saying no! No to a Germany in which this mindset, which has already led Germany to collapse once before, is once again gaining the upper hand.
Our country and our free life in our liberal democracy are more threatened by extremist ideas from the political fringes than they have ever been by the pandemic and the influx of people from abroad. It is not refugees – legal or illegal – who are destroying our country, but extremists of all colours who are using intolerance, hatred and envy to undermine the cohesion of our society.
We as the CGB stand together with all democratic forces to defend our country and our free way of life. As the CGB, we stand in solidarity with all trade unions and democratic workers’ organisations in our society and oppose attempts to turn the clock back 90 years.
As Christian trade unionists, we have always carried out our trade union work in the spirit of the Christian social teachings. Values such as tolerance, respect, solidarity and humanity have always characterized our Christian trade union work and will continue to do so in the future.
This naturally includes our orientation towards the free democratic basic order in Germany, which unites us with all democratic forces in Germany despite all differences of opinion.
With this in mind, let us shape our future together – for our democracy, for all that we have achieved!
Source: https://www.cgb.info/aktuell/stellungnahmen/leser/items/1361.html (original German)
