It’s been obvious for a long time that it’s open season on the AfD (Alternative für Deutschland, Alternative for Germany). Party members are violently attacked on the street, the party is excluded from numerous political events, and supporters lose their jobs or experience other restrictions in their day-to-day lives.

And now it’s official: the call to kill AfD members is not unlawful, because “kill” doesn’t really mean kill when used in this context.

Many thanks to Hellequin GB for translating this article from Junge Freiheit. The translator’s comments are in square brackets:

Jurisprudence

“Kill AfD members” is not a criminal offense, according to the court

Criticism, but no threat: Carrying banners with the slogan “Kill AfD members” is apparently not a criminal offense. Nevertheless, there have been several attempts to follow the slogan in recent weeks.

Aachen

The Aachen public prosecutor’s office has closed the investigation into the use of the slogan “Kill AfD members”. Members of Antifa displayed a banner with this slogan during a demonstration in January. This does not constitute criminal behavior, said the public prosecutor’s office, according to a report by RTL.

Since the statement ends with a period and not an exclamation mark, the inscription should be understood as an accusation against the party. According to conventional jurisprudence, when statements are open to a variety of interpretations, the most favourable version should be accepted. Accordingly, the poster accuses the party that its policies are killing people. [How much ideological mental gymnastics did this take for this “judge” to come to this ruling? It must has have twisted his or her brain into a Gordian knot.]

However, a spokesman for the public prosecutor’s office stressed that no general conclusions could be drawn from the verdict. Only the specific individual case would be decided.

Violent attacks on AfD politicians occur again and again Among others, Berlin MP Gunnar Lindemann filed a criminal complaint in January over the banner. He considered the banner a “public call for murder,” the politician wrote on Twitter at the time. [Which it is. And as everyone can see is a call they try to heed.]

In recent weeks, there have been several attacks on AfD politicians. The candidate Heinrich Koch was attacked with a knife and had to be taken to hospital with cuts. Two of the party’s city councilors were recently attacked in a café in Karlsruhe. Around ten masked men, some armed with objects, injured the politicians Oliver Schnell and Paul Schmidt.

In Dresden, the state parliament member Hans-Jürgen Zickler was attacked at a campaign stand shortly before the European elections. The 47-year-old attacker was subsequently arrested by the police. [And turned lose around the corner, perhaps?]

Afterword from the translator:

I’ve been saying for years now that Germany is trying to catch up with South Africa, and this ruling shows that Germany has. Just a few weeks ago the High Court here in South Africa ruled that the song “Kill the Boer, Kill the Farmer” is not hate speech and no call for violence, even though each time black politicians sing that song on public gatherings, afterwards white framers and their families die slowly in the most horrific manner these animal can come up with.

And so this ruling shows to me clearly that in the best “democracy” in German history, the entire system has gone evilly crazy, from the Federal President and Chancellor down to the weekly agitprop publication ZEIT. And when a few partying and drunk young people sing “Germany for the Germans — foreigners out”, the whole wrath and might of the political establishment and judiciary comes crashing down on them like a ton of bricks. But when it comes to “killing AfD members” everything is A-OK?!

How about “Germany for the Germans — kill the foreign invaders”, then?

Either that is A-OK too, or Germany simply has a miserable arbitrary regime, including a cheap imitation of the rule of law.

And then there’s this phrase “to accept the cheapest option”… In Höcke’s case, however, it was “assumed” that he wanted to use the SA slogan to send a stand-off signal to the sleepers of prince Heinrich’s geriatrics “coup d’état”, the least favourable variant. The fact that he wanted to call on the AfD to use all its strength for the good of the republic… “We cannot trust him to do that, we know him,” there the court decreed. Of course, the politicians’ favourites understand this to mean their own private opinion and in favour of their patron. Most Germans are (still) defenseless against the latter — all the way up to the Federal Protection Court in Karlsruhe.

Perhaps instead of Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa, it will be Old Fritz from Kyffhäuser who once said:

“For a college of justice that practices injustice is more dangerous and worse than a band of thieves, against whom one can protect oneself; but against rogues who use the cloak of justice to carry out their evil passions, no one can protect oneself. They are worse than the greatest scoundrels in the world, and deserve a double punishment.”

If he comes back, in whatever form, then God have mercy on those affected.