There is a refugee accommodation in the middle of Germany’s first AfD-administered district. The Ukrainian and Afghan residents say: We want to stay in Sonneberg. How can that be?
All his life, Oleg looked out of his window at Kharkiv. He was born in the eastern Ukrainian city 86 years ago, survived the attack by Wehrmacht soldiers as a child, later became a teacher there, married and divorced. He never wanted to leave. But now he sits here, on a freshly made bed in a refugee accommodation in Germany. Kharkiv is no longer outside his window. The Thuringian Forest now rustles there.
Oleg is one of around 5,000 people without a German passport in the Sonneberg district. He is one of the refugees against whom the AfD stirred up sentiment here – and thus apparently convinced them: their candidate Robert Sesselmann said during the election campaign that German citizens should no longer be treated as second-class citizens. The left-wing Prime Minister, on the other hand, only makes policies for migrants.
If you talk to people here in the district in front of the supermarket, on the regional train, on the football team, many of them repeat these slogans. Ukrainians receive more support than Germans, refugees live in luxury at the expense of the citizens. Enough Sonnebergers believe that. A majority voted for Sesselmann in June, and he became Germany’s first AfD district administrator.
Oleg now lives in a district that the AfD manages. Between neighbors, many of whom voted for the AfD, at least statistically. How are he and his roommates coping with this? How do you live as a refugee in the Sonneberg district?
Source: Stern
I have been working in the news industry for over 6 years, first as a reporter and now as an editor. I have covered politics extensively, and my work has appeared in major newspapers and online news outlets around the world. In addition to my writing, I also contribute regularly to 24 Hours World.
