Ideological Hotchpotch -- I told you so!

At the sound of the word "freedom" Americans tend to react with an appreciative Pavlovian drool. Recently, a new German party named "Die Freiheit" (Freiheit=freedom/liberty) is triggering this effect. The party hold its inaugural meeting on October 28 in Berlin. Chairman is René Stadtkewitz, a member of the Berlin parliament who used to belong to the parliamentary group of the Christian Democratic Union until his expulsion some weeks ago for hosting the Dutch politician Geert Wilders. (We reported.)

Stadtkewitz is clearly modeling his party after Geert Wilders' "Partij voor de Vrijheid" (Party for Freedom) with a strong focus on the threat an ever-increasing Islamisation poses to the West and a pronounced solidarity with Israel.

For what else does it stand? 28 "core demands" (Kernforderungen) taken from the party platform, may shed some light on it:

1. for a direct democracy after the Swiss model

2. for a new constitution for Germany -- decided directly by the people

3. for better voting rights by referenda

4. for the election of the President by the people

5. against exertion of political influence by the political parties via the media

6. for the sanction of tax-wasting by politicians

7. for the protection of the unborn life

8. for a salary for the parent who stays at home to look after the children

9. for a child-related bonus to the pensions of parents

10. for a flexible retirement age, depending on health and job performance

11. for a national school system and national education standards

12. for the support of teachers by so-called co-teachers

13. for performance-orientated dole-money with the entire career as assesment base

14. for the introduction and realisation of the "workfare concept", i.e. charitable work instead of welfare money without return service

15. against local business tax, for a reform of the municipal budgets

16. against car tax, for car toll

17. for the inviolable dignity of the animal - no cruelty and killing out of religious and traditional reasons

18. for non-discrimination of complimentary treatment methods -- recognized by the health insurance

19. for traffic light labelling on food products to make it easier for the consumer to identify the ingredients

20. for a modernisation of the health insurance system aimed at a statutory insurance for all citizens with freedom to choose (i.e. private insurance)

21. for the establishment of the Kirsten-Heisig-Scheme in all federal states

22. for better infrastructure for and against staff cuts of the police force

23. for a zero-tolerance strategy in the case of Islamic influence, no creeping sharia

24. for a stop of immigration now, at least until a solution to the integration problems has been found

25. for new guidelines for residence permits for family members of migrants

26. for strict public participation at mosque building projects

27. for the deprivation of the German citizenship in cases of terrorist activities and felony

28. for Europe as a contract between independent partners, against EU-dictatorship from Brussels

From the laudable, via the indispensable to the sensible to the superfluous to the ridiculous and finally to the potentially dangerous. See Americans? They are NO "conservatives". Everybody who demands "animal rights" has lost any credibility, generally and specifically as conservative. As far as points 18 and 19 are concerned, one could as well vote "green". And if I see a demand for "no cruelty and killing out of traditional reasons" all my alarm bells start ringing and I smell a hunting/shooting ban. It's the old German besottedness with "nature", pretty pictures, romanticism, idealism, rising ity ugly head again. "Conservatism" has no place here.

At least a third of those "core demands" have no place in a party platform anyway and one wonders whether Stadtkewitz (who is a decent enough fellow) and his team are unable to pay an editor or whether they REALLY think this is something on which some common understanding can be built.