Scandal during speech

AfD man causes outrage at Auschwitz commemoration

The Franco-German journalist and philosopher Michel Friedman(Bild: AFP)

A scandal at a Holocaust memorial event in the German city of Saarbrücken: During a speech by Jewish publicist and philosopher Michel Friedman, Saarland AfD parliamentary group leader Josef Dörr heckled him and then left the hall. Friedman received applause from the audience for his reaction.

On Monday, Friedman called for vigilance against anti-democratic forces on the occasion of International Holocaust Remembrance Day and the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. Jewish life in Germany is "more endangered than it has been for decades", said Friedman.

The German-Frenchman also attacked the AfD, without mentioning the party by name. "One in five Germans votes for a party that says some people are nobody," Friedman warned. This party hates, despises and disqualifies people. In Germany, hatred of Jews has become socially acceptable again.

The German-French publicist and philosopher Michel Friedman(Bild: AFP)

Friedman sees anti-democratic tendencies in the AfD, with the party taking its cue from neo-Nazis. This is not much different in Saarland, as "this strange party of hatred, which calls itself democratic and wants to destroy democracy", is also represented here.

Josef Dörr from the AfD Saarland(Bild: AFP or licensors)

That was too much for Josef Dörr, who was sitting in the front row of the audience. The chairman of the AfD parliamentary group in Saarland interrupted Friedman's speech with the interjection: "Stay moderate". The politician then left the event.

Friedman promptly countered, to applause from the audience: "If only you would speak so moderately about people you want to remigrate ... Maybe it wouldn't be a bad thing if you listened and didn't leave the room."