Democracy expert: Why we need more enthusiasm for democracy again

Last Sunday in the elections in Thuringia, almost 50 percent of voters voted for the AfD and the BSW voted. In Saxony, the number was hardly any lower. Does that worry you?
Yes, of course. But not just since Sunday. That was a day of worry that had been building up for a long time. When what you have long feared happens, the motto must be: stay cool, keep an overview and see how you can get out of the mess.

What is new is that populist parties are the election winners.
And yet, one must not succumb to the temptation to blame the voters for it at the same time. It is not the same thing whether you actively stir up frustration or whether you are disgruntled. After many discussions in both federal states, I know that there are often very mixed motives why people consider voting for the AfD.

Can you be a democrat even if you vote for AfD or BSW?
You can do it out of recklessness, out of thoughtlessness. Like throwing a stink bomb. Or out of frustration, when you have the impression that your problems are not being seen. But sooner or later every single person has to ask themselves: can you take responsibility for this cross or can you not? And the answer can only be: you cannot take responsibility for it.

A principle in her book “Ten Rules for democracy-Saviour” from 2017 is: “Stay calm when dealing with those who despise democracy”. Would you still formulate it the same way today?
There is a paradox: on the one hand, democracy requires passion. You have to be enthusiastic about a certain idea. And on the other hand, you have to develop a few democratic virtues because not everyone has the same opinions as you. And that includes calmness, which is exactly what is currently lacking.

You could also say Abraham Lincoln see: “Elections belong to the people. It is their choice. And if they decide to turn their backs on the fire and burn their butts, then they will just have to sit on their bladders afterwards.” Wasn’t he right?
That’s well said, but unfortunately, when the wrong people grab power, the butts of people who have made completely different decisions also burn.

How much must a free society be able to endure? The writer and cabaret artist Werner Finck once said: “Where things go too far, freedom only begins.”
I am a supporter of a very broad definition of freedom. But I have the feeling that our culture of debate and our political climate have become much narrower and more stuffy in recent years. This is evident in the number of people who refuse to even talk to people who think differently. This is also a cause of frustration and fatal errors in the voting booth. Anyone who wants to restrict someone else’s freedom always has to prove why exactly the limits of tolerance have been exceeded. And that must always be the exception. I must be prepared to torture myself with what others think.

Former Chancellor Angela Merkel once said: “We truly have no legal right to democracy and a social market economy for all eternity.” Is our democratic way of life now at stake?
Certainly. But not because there are suddenly so many detractors, but because many take for granted what other generations before us have fought for. They can no longer imagine that our way of life suddenly no longer exists. We urgently need to stop focusing on the enemies of democracy. Instead, we need to ask ourselves: How can we get more friends of democracy to get involved? And what could my own contribution be?

This is becoming increasingly difficult …
Yes. We are seeing an erosion of political engagement. Although the AfD is a new addition, the number of members of all parties has halved since 1990. It is not enough to view democracy as a gift in the long term. Democracy is like a bicycle that must be pedalled further, otherwise it will fall over.

Aristotle dismissed democracy as the rule of the lower classes. The poorer and the lazy would be in the majority in parliaments, would outvote the wealthy and the capable and rob them of their potential. The right wing is making similar comments today.
Aristotle said this after the polis democracy in Athens had reached its peak. In hindsight, it is always easy to lament the decline. It would be better to look at how democracy can flourish again. In Athenian democracy, everyone was invited to participate. Those who did not do so were called “idiots”.

Thuringia’s AfD leader Björn Höcke complains that the AfD got the most votes in Thuringia and yet no party wants to even talk to the AfD. Is that democratic?
When someone from the far right suddenly starts acting like a super-democrat, we can only learn one thing: One of the dilemmas of democracy is that its enemies disguise themselves as true democrats.

But there is nothing fundamentally wrong with focusing on unpleasant opponents, is there?
No, but no matter how many votes Höcke may have received, that does not legitimize his claim to become prime minister. For that, you need a majority in parliament.

And what about Sahra Wagenknecht, who took off with the BSW and became a kingmaker?
She has a key role that requires both decency and political wisdom. She must decide: does she want to enter the engine room of democracy now or just continue to fuel discontent?

Why do Germans like to see only disaster everywhere?
That’s not so German at all. That it used to be a paradise, but today everything is terrible and therefore has to collapse so that it will be good again tomorrow – that’s a millennia-old way of thinking that appears in religions and ideologies all over the world. But it’s true: I was in France in the summer and thought: what a torn country that must be. Then I realized: people are much friendlier to one another. I miss that basic French friendliness.

Why is that? Are we prisoners of our fear?
Never before in the history of mankind has there been as much security in life on the patch of earth where we live as there is today. Nevertheless, people want even more security. Out of fear, which then competes with the idea of ​​freedom. This fear must be fought, otherwise we will end up with a policy of fear, the results of which are terrible.

But how do you fight this fear?
By doing something myself. Confidence doesn’t fall from the sky, it is the product of one’s own work. A consumer mentality has developed, particularly in politics. People think: voting is like ordering something from Amazon. If I don’t like the political service, I return the package and order somewhere else. But democracy needs active citizens, not just consumers.

What does that mean exactly?
That we have to get involved ourselves. And that if we want to be mature and responsible, we have to accept that we have some big political questions that cannot be definitively answered at the moment. We don’t have a good answer to the question of climate change, we have to experiment. We don’t have a good answer to the question of how we treat millions of migrants without being cruel or overburdening our society. We also don’t know how we can organize an economy in a finite world that depends on growth. We don’t yet have a new operating system for all of this. That makes us nervous.

But how do we save democracy?
The most important thing is to realize that your own perspective on the world is just one of many. The second is the willingness to torment yourself with the opinion of others if necessary. The third virtue is to argue fairly without getting into arguments. And the fourth virtue would be not to despise compromise, but to see it as fundamental.

Now it is precisely the younger people who have often voted for the AfD in Thuringia and Saxony. Is it perhaps only a matter of time before German democracy collapses?
Don’t worry, I also made stupid choices when I was that age. I cling to the hope that the current situation will make young people realize that any other way of life than ours would be a disgrace.