Saxony's new Justice minister used to be member in a left-wing extremist punk band agitating violence against the police
Saxonians voted center-right but got a center-green-left coalition
At the beginning of September 2019, Saxony voted a new parlament. It took a while until the state could form a new government. Reason for this is the ever stronger AfD party, which made coalition forming diffcult as none of the established parties would form a coalition with them. Not even the CDU was interested, although the two parties have a comparable program and the AfD being the big winner of the election.
Despite the result of the Saxonian state election clearly showing that people wanted a center-right government, the CDU started talks with the Social Democrats who heavily lost. As second necessary coalition partner the CDU picked the Green Party, which is also politically left and enjoys only around a quarter of the popularity the Greens enjoy in Germany as a whole. Given the circumstances at the end after more than three months of consultations, the CDU - which already moved significantly to the left in recent years - made extensive concessions to the two left-wing parties and finally formed a coalition with them.
Justice minister sang "Let the cops burn"
The new Saxonian government is now not even one month old, but they already have their first scandal. It's protagonist is Saxony's new Justice minister Katja Meier from the Green Party, who used to be member of a left-wing extremist punk band as a teenager. This fact wasn't a secret, Meier herself stated before that she "played the base in the band at age 16" and that she "no longer stands to all the lyrics 20 years after that time". On Twitter she added that she "is against any kind of violence".
Reason for her new statement were lyrics of one song of her Band called "Harlekins", which goes about "Advent, Advent - a cop is burning". Although Meier tried to frame it that way, it is not the only song which is openly agitating violence against authorities. While commentators called it a youthful folly by the new Justice minister, they also point out that Meier was probably older than 16 years when playing in the band, implying a more settled world view.
After the extremist content of the lyrics made their rounds on Social Media, policeman Sebastian Wippel of the the AfD fraction in the Saxonian parlament strongly criticized the appointment of Meier as Justice minister. He stated that "someone who at one point in his life had a positive attitude towards burning policemen is not fit to lead the Justice ministery". According to her Wikipedia page, does not even have a background in the legal profession, but studied political science and then worked in different functions for the Green Party, befor she has been appointed as Justice minister.
Media double standards
In a different case of former political extremism, Robert Möritz, a member of the CDU in Saxony-Anhalt and county level politician is under investigation for a tattoo with Nazi symbolism. The 29 year old man apparently had a past in Neonazi circles during his youth and wears a "black sun" tattoo, which someone spotted and reported it. His party, Angela Merkel's CDU, now intends to suspend him, unless he can make a convincing argument for having distanced himself fully from his extremist past.
In difference to Meiers extremist background, the mainstream media is fully reporting about the Möritz's case. Between the lines Möritz case seems to be clear, his chances for an exoneration seem miniscule.
Extremism in Saxony and Germany: From right to left
Post-Communist Eastern Germany, but Saxony in particular has a long-standing reputation for having strong extremist fringes that are more distinct than in Germany as a whole.
One of the main reason is that after the end of Comminism and the sharp economic decline, many families have been destroyed, capable young people moved away and social and individual depression was rampant. In many cases, this gap has been filled by Neonazi groups who cared especially for the young men who were left alone. With the economic stabilization of the region much of the damage could be mitigated, but there are still pockets with extremist structures.
While right-wing extremism is more common in economically depressed rural areas and cities which entirely lost their industry, left-wing extremism could mainly flurish in the urban environment. This is especially the case in Leipzig, one of Saxony's big centers besides the capital Dresden. Here, the quarter of Connewitz plays an important role as hub for left-wing extremists, who flock there from everywhere in Germany and Europe.
For a long time, the left-wing dominated city council looked the other way to give way to the establishment of extremist strcutures. Today, Connewitz can be considered as one of Germany's centers for left-wing extremism dominated by Antifa. Just recently, an internal police video of a violent demonstration by Antifa black block members in Leipzig has been leaked to the public. It shows how strong Antifa is today in Germany and Saxony.
The shift of significance from right-wing extremism to left-wing extremism has also left a mark in official statistics. While the often criticized crime statistics for being easily manipulatable are stil in "favor" of right-wing extremists, Germany's inland secret service Verfassungsschutz has now with around 40% more left-wing extremists on ther watchlist (32.000) than right-wing extremists (24,000).
Meanwhile Germany's federal government has doubled its budget to fight right-wing extremism in the recent years to more than 100 million Euro, while Manuela Schwesig (SPD), former federal Minister responsible for the budget who is now Prime Minister of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, stated that "left-wing extremism as a phenomenon is exagerated" as argument for having no budget to fight left-wing extremism.