"In a country deeply conscious of its own history, the party, now riding high in the polls, has to decide whether it rejects or embraces Hitler as an ideological antecedent. Rather than answering definitively, the party is deliberately opaque. It flirts with the Nazi legacy without explicitly committing to it. Far from putting voters off, this strategic ambiguity cultivates a surprisingly powerful mix of outrage and plausible deniability."
"On 3 and 4 July 1926, Adolf Hitler then nowhere near power but already an infamous fanatic gathered his party faithful in Weimar, which was then the state capital. This meeting was smaller than the better-known Nuremberg rallies of the 1930s. But for the Nazi party, Weimar was a milestone on its path to power. The Weimar rally was where the Hitler Youth received its name, and where central Nazi rituals such as the Hitler salute were first presented to the public."
AfD maintains deliberate opacity about its relationship to Nazism while rising in the polls, forcing a choice between rejection and embrace of Hitler as an antecedent. The party flirts with the Nazi legacy through symbolic acts and ambiguous messaging, generating both outrage and plausible deniability. The planned early-July conference in Erfurt intentionally coincides with the 100th anniversary of a 1926 Nazi rally in nearby Weimar, a milestone where the Hitler Youth was named and Nazi rituals were presented. Thuringia historically offered early respite to the Nazi movement. AfD spokespeople publicly claim ignorance and cast criticism as weaponisation of history.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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