“The Wiesn is apolitical,” says Oktoberfest boss Clemens Baumgärtner. Right-wing slogans should not be seen here in the future either.
Because of re-writings with right-wing extremist lyrics, the Oktoberfest organizers don’t want to play the song “L’amour toujours” at all as a precaution. “We want to ban it and I will ban it,” Oktoberfest boss Clemens Baumgärtner told the German Press Agency, referring to the song by Italian DJ Gigi D’Agostino. “There’s no room for all that right-wing crap at the Oktoberfest.” The “Münchner Merkur” had previously reported.
The song itself is not right-wing radical, but it has acquired a “very clear right-wing radical connotation,” said Baumgärtner. The operating conditions of the Oktoberfest make it possible to ban such slogans or content. The Wiesn is a “light-hearted and beautiful” festival with many foreign guests. Right-wing slogans have been prevented in the past and should not be used in the future. “The Wiesn is apolitical.”
The song is often used for racist slogans. A video showing visitors to a bar on Sylt chanting “Foreigners out” and “Germany for the Germans” to the melody of the party hit caused great outrage in recent days. State security is investigating. On Friday evening, two visitors to a festival in Erlangen chanted racist slogans to the same song. At a Whitsun festival in Upper Palatinate, visitors are also said to have shouted “Foreigners out” when the song was played.
Source: Stern
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