04.07.2014 NPD-posters: Meeting on campaigning limits

Schlegel (2014) reports on a meeting proposed by the German federal ministry of the interior on the limits of political campaigning. The background of the meeting is given by the controversial election posters of the far-right National Democratic Party of Germany (NPD), which used racist slogans as “stop gypsy flood” or “money for grandma instead for Sinti and Roma” during last rounds of elections. Despite the massive criticism against the xenophobic campaign, several administrative courts pronounced judgments in favour of the defenders of the election posters, who appealed based on freedom of expression. The offense of demagoguery could not be assigned to these posters, which was stated as one of the reasons for the rejection of a ban. In return, other cities had frbidden the posters, following the pressure from local politicians or because Rroma had filed complaint. The unclear legal position of the controversial posters is the key topic of the event organised by the federal ministry of the interior that will be discussed in detail during this meeting. The viewpoints of the central council of German Sinti and Rroma will be an important part at the event. The council has repeatedly criticized the demagogic nature of NPD election advertising and condemned it decisively. Joachim Krauss from the German centre for research on Anti-Semitism criticizes the argumentative emptiness of the right-wing nationalist campaign advertising, as well as the political instrumentalisation of Rroma by the established parties: ““There is almost never a substantive justification for the rejection, and yet many people do not want Sinti and Roma as neighbours”, says Krauss. The fact that the NPD was able to use the issue, is also due to the other parties. AfD and CSU likewise expressed themselves dismissively towards Sinti and Roma with the term “poverty immigration”” (Schlegel 2014). In this case, a racial discourse about Rroma was established with the term “poverty immigration”, which equates them with social parasites and anti-social behaviour, although Rroma only account for a fraction of all immigrants.