Protecting democracy | Against authoritarian restructuring: act now

Democracy festival in Magdeburg one day before the state elections: Since the witching didn't help, other strategies are needed to limit the power of the AfD and other authoritarian forces. Photo: IMAGO/epd/Paul-Philipp Braun The election results in Saxony-Anhalt, in which an openly right-wing radical party almost achieved an absolute majority, shocked us to the core. The immediate human reaction to such an event is shock. But as understandable as this impulse may be emotionally, it is politically dangerous. Paralysis is the most reliable ally of those who aim to dismantle the foundations of democracy step by step. We must shed our fear. The crucial question of this time must therefore be: How do we regain our power to act?

Clara Bünger has been a member of the Bundestag since 2022 and has been deputy chairwoman of the Die Linke parliamentary group since 2025. The fully qualified lawyer is a member of the Parliament's Interior Committee and her parliamentary group's domestic and refugee policy spokesperson. She is currently one of the initiators of the “Recht Solidarisch” project, which offers legal help and advice for people with a migration history, for civil society actors, against restrictions on media freedom and for the protection of democracy projects. In addition to the parliamentary group conference of the Die Linke party, partners in the initiative include the Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung, the Republican Lawyers' Association and the organization Equal Rights Beyond Borders.

The shift to the right, which has been highlighted in all its facets for over a decade, is all too often treated in the Republic's talk shows and editorials as something inevitable, as if an uncontrollable force of nature was sweeping the country. But this devotion to fate ignores the essence of politics. Political events and developments do not fall from the sky, they are made by people. They are the result of historical continuities and breaks, targeted discourse strategies and decades of work in the pre-political space.

If the parties and media of the self-proclaimed middle class, from the Union to the Greens, from the "NZZ" to "Zeit", adopt the rhetoric of exclusion, want to dismantle the welfare state and gut the asylum law, if they declare fundamental rights to be an annoying obstacle, then they are paving the way for authoritarian restructuring. The still unshakable belief that we can fight the radical right by implementing their demands ourselves has left us with the shambles we are faced with today.

Anyone who wants to understand the horror of the present must be able to recognize the long history of this development. The rise of the new authoritarianism began neither on an election evening in Saxony-Anhalt nor with the founding of the AfD. In the East it is rooted in the de-industrialization of the post-reunification years, when the Treuhand liquidated businesses, when millions of people lost their jobs and many had to go to the West because there was no longer any work locally. The fact that to this day there are hardly any East Germans in management levels and hardly any management levels in East Germany at all goes back to these years.

The AfD does not talk about unequal wages and working conditions between East and West. It steps downwards, pits people against each other in a racist manner and transforms the contrast between top and bottom into a distributional conflict between “inside” and “outside”. From the experience that others came, decided over you and made money from you, the narrative becomes that refugees come and take something away. This catches on in the East because people here actually experienced the first part of this story.

"Nationwide, the new authoritarianism has been able to grow in the abyss of neoliberal de-solidarization since the turn of the millennium, with Agenda 2010 and Hartz IV."

Nationwide, the new authoritarianism has been able to grow since the turn of the millennium, with Agenda 2010 and Hartz IV, in the abyss of neoliberal de-solidarization, which has dissolved the protective web of human relationships in society. Long before the AfD's electoral successes, networks were formed that worked towards a shift in political coordinates: to impose toughness, to destroy solidarity and to disorient the political camps. If we do not fundamentally break with this mechanism, we will no longer be able to fight for more democracy and more social rights, but only for how much lawlessness we have to endure.

Democracies don’t always end spectacularly. They are being eroded little by little. The authoritarian restructuring begins without a big bang: with the cancellation of project funding for local democracy initiatives, with the ban on readings in the city library, with the more or less subtle intimidation of committed teachers or with the public discrediting of critical scientists. What on its own may appear to be an isolated administrative act or a one-off attempt at intimidation, comes together to form a targeted strategy of attrition. The goal is clear: to narrow freedoms, silence critical voices and gradually get people used to the compelling logic of “law and order”.

The authoritarian restructuring begins without a big bang: with the cancellation of project funding for local democracy initiatives, with the ban on readings in the city library, with the more or less subtle intimidation of committed teachers or with the public discrediting of critical scientists.

In this situation, not only does the pressure within and within institutions grow, but the very real danger to people's lives and physical integrity grows. Right-wing, racist, anti-Semitic, queer and misogynistic violence is already a reality for everyone who is excluded or who resists fascist structures in word and deed.

The disastrous thing about the current debate is that the protection of democracy is usually only discussed as a defense of institutions and procedures. But democracy is not limited to parliamentary processes and majority decisions. Their vitality is measured by whether people exercise their rights without fear. The protection of institutions remains performative and useless if it is not inextricably linked to the concrete protection of those who are always the first to be targeted by right-wing politics.

The protection of institutions remains performative and useless if it is not inextricably linked to the concrete protection of those who are always the first to be targeted by right-wing politics.

Preparing for the scenario of an authoritarian government does not mean capitulating to it. On the contrary: it is an expression of political responsibility for those who are actually in danger. When the US civil rights organization ACLU developed legal strategies to defend Donald Trump before his second term in office, it was precisely this preparatory work that enabled civil society to sue against Trump's authoritarian decrees from the first day of his presidency. This unexpected headwind for the US administration was the result of a long-prepared strategy and reliable networks of resistance.

It is precisely in this spirit that we launched the “Right Solidarity” initiative. Together with lawyers and initiatives in Saxony-Anhalt, we took a specific look at what attacks actually threaten under an AfD-led state government and how those affected can defend themselves most effectively. The starting point was not theoretical considerations, but rather the everyday experiences of local people: What can my association do if its funds are withdrawn? How do we protect teachers who come under pressure for their behavior? What rights can cultural workers, students or public sector employees mobilize?

Anyone who knows their rights and knows where solidarity support awaits them can carry on. In this way, the law is transformed from an instrument of power into a living tool of anti-fascist self-assertion.

Law alone will not change the political balance of power. It cannot replace political struggle. But defending against an illegal administrative act, obtaining an interim order or defending the right to assembly can make the difference between helplessness and the ability to act for the people we are concerned with. Anyone who knows their rights and knows where solidarity support awaits them can carry on. In this way, the law is transformed from an instrument of power into a living tool of anti-fascist self-assertion.

In order to actually counteract the authoritarian restructuring, in addition to practical support on site, clear boundaries are needed from all democratic actors and at the same time the promise of a future that is worth fighting for. The first boundary must be: no cooperation with the AfD, anywhere. No coalition, no tolerance, no backroom agreements and no acceptance of their demands.

The second demarcation must unconditionally defend fundamental rights: Anyone who calls for mass deportations, isolates refugees in slum camps, criminalizes protests or financially undermines civil society is clearly destroying the rights of the individual on which every democratic community is based. And thirdly: end the culture war against civil society! Anti-fascist commitment, self-organization, trade union and youth work are not a threat, but the beating heart of this society.

If we pool our knowledge, our legal tools and our local experience in solidarity, a countervailing power is created in everyday life that the state cannot simply remove.

At the same time, we must gain a common perspective that gives us courage. The legitimate need for security does not have to be answered with state violence and surveillance. A good life in security is much more: affordable rents, wages you can live on, well-equipped hospitals and an infrastructure that is there for everyone. Security means equal rights for all people, without ifs and buts.

We must act, and we must act now. The fight for freedom is not only decided in court, but also there. It decides where people decide to counter the powerlessness with their own ability to act: in companies, in schools, in the neighborhood, on the streets and in parliaments. If we pool our knowledge, our legal tools and our local experience in solidarity, a countervailing power is created in everyday life that the state cannot simply remove. The radical right is counting on us to remain isolated in the state of shock and hope that things won't get that bad for us. We will not do them exactly this favor. We act now.

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