A right-wing political party in Germany is facing fresh backlash after it emerged that a regional chairwoman is undergoing an investigation for sending an image of Adolf Hitler to her colleagues, allegedly calling for his return.
The nationalist party Alternative for Germany (AfD) has launched the internal investigation into Elena Roon. The Nuremberg party member allegedly sent a photo to others in an AfD Whatsapp group last summer, following it with phrases like “Missed since 1945,” and “Adolf, please get in touch! Germany needs you! The German people!”
A second image containing shows the fascist dictator ruffling his hair, saying: “Islamists... I forgot them!”
Internal inquiry
The Eurosceptic and right-wing populist party will now seek to determine whether or not Roon’s messages have damaged the party’s reputation, ahead of her candidacy in parliamentary elections.
Responding to the controversy, Roon denied suggestions that her use of the images and so-called jokes implied she was a Neo-Nazi or sympathetic to the teachings of the Nazi leader.
“I distance myself from right-wing extremism and anti-Semitism,” she told a local newspaper, admitting that she did send the images in the messaging app.
“Anybody who wishes to draw the conclusion that I condone what it says in the images is twisting the truth round completely,” Roon said.
When asked why she had sent them in the first place, the Nuremberg branch chairwoman offered no response.
Party leaders respond
Other leaders in Alternative for Germany said that the group “takes this matter very seriously,” revealing that the party will conduct an internal investigation to determine what Roon’s motivation was when sending images of the man guilty of the extermination of more than 6m Jews during the Second World War.
“If her behaviour has damaged the party, then there will be consequences,” said Petr Bystron, chairman of the populist party’s Bavarian chapter, who added that the allegations are “most probably unfounded.”
AfD in crisis?
This is the second major scandal to rock AfD regarding party member’s comments about the role played by Germany during the Holocaust and WWII. Earlier this week, the party moved to expel its Thuringia leader, Bjorn Hocke.
While speaking in Dresden on the anniversary of the firebombing of the city by the RAF, Hocke said that the Berlin’s Holocaust Memorial, designed by Peter Eisenman and Buro Happold, was a “monument of shame.”
Subsequent comments that Germany is too beholden to its guilt over the war and the Holocaust say Hocke expelled, as well as a slip in the polls from 15% to 12%.
