FDP Defense Politician Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann Warns of Growing Coarseness in Politics
“If only people who threaten and those who believe they can be successful with crass statements and coarse language come, then God have mercy on this democracy” Strack-Zimmermann told the Funke Media Group. In the United States, Donald Trump had been re-elected, who had not left out “insults, racism, and absurd statements, where one should have said a hundred times, ‘he does not belong here.'” If this was successful, young people would no longer dare to enter politics.
Therefore, she shows people who insult. “If those who use these frightening words insult, and if this becomes the norm, young people, by the way, also young men, will not put up with it” warned the chair of the Defense Committee in the European Parliament.
Strack-Zimmermann confirmed: “Yes, I show them, and I tell you, I do this because I have an unbelievable number of young people in my surroundings.” And there are always condemnations. In the courtroom, there are then quite normal people. “There is a retired gym teacher who completely loses it online.” As a reason, she mentioned the Corona measures. “We have, unfortunately, in the social space, something unleashed, where people were alone, found each other online, because they had no communication. What a society-destroying thing, that one can already get anxious and scared about.”
Strack-Zimmermann described how she confronts hate with personal commitment. At the Dresden train station, a man called her a “war agitator” as she walked by, because of her efforts to deliver weapons to Ukraine. “And then I also caught up with him at the exit, to the joy of my fellow passengers. Then he ran faster, and I also did. And I then also caught him at the door and said, ‘What did you say?’ so the FDP politician. ‘Then he said it again, very upset, and I said, ‘Look, we don’t know each other. We can see things differently, completely okay. But why do you say that? And then something like a soufflé collapses. That means these people don’t even have the backside in their pants to stand in front of me and say that to me.’