Before the runoff election for the district administrator position in Dahme-Spreewald between an AfD candidate and a non-party applicant, companies, research and educational institutions based there clearly spoke out against extremism. A joint appeal states, among other things: “Cosmopolitanism, mutual understanding and respect are values on which the prosperity of our region is built – especially in times of a shortage of skilled workers, this is more important than ever. Our tourism can only flourish if we practice cosmopolitanism and extremism are clearly rejected.” The call, which was suggested by the citizens’ movement Campact and which will be published in some newspapers this Tuesday, was available to dpa.
According to Campact, the background is the close election result of the district election in October, in which AfD candidate Steffen Kotré won 35.3 percent of the vote in the first round. The independent individual candidate Sven Herzberger received 34.8 percent of the vote. Since neither candidate won an absolute majority and was able to attract the votes of at least 15 percent of those eligible to vote, there will be a runoff election for the office of the future district administrator on Sunday.
AfD candidate Kotré is assigned to the right-wing fringe of the party. According to the Brandenburg Action Alliance against Violence, Right-Wing Extremism and Racism, he was a supporter of the ethnic-nationalist “wing”. The AfD state association has been classified as a suspected right-wing extremist case by the Brandenburg Office for the Protection of the Constitution since 2020; the AfD considers the classification to be incorrect.
The company Bionova Biogas from Königs Wusterhausen also joined the appeal, which appeared this Tuesday in local newspaper editions of the “Lausitzer Rundschau”, the “Märkische Allgemeine”, the “Blickpunkt” and the “Lausitzer Woche”. “We need politicians in our country who pragmatically solve problems and connect people with each other,” said the company.
The DESY (German Electron Synchrotron) research center is also among the signatories of the appeal. “People from 34 nations work on our campus in Zeuthen in the Dahme-Spreewald district. We are committed to tolerance and cosmopolitanism in the region – they are indispensable for our work and as a location factor for the district,” said the center. The measurement technology company Deutzer Technische Kohl GmbH made a similar statement. “As an internationally operating, cosmopolitan company, it is very clear to us that isolation and nationalism mean loss for everyone and can also endanger our prosperity in the long term.”
The independent candidate Herzberger – also mayor of Zeuthen – is supported in the runoff election by the SPD, CDU, Left, FDP, Greens and the Free Voters. In the joint appeal to the electorate, companies and institutions say: “Reject extremism and right-wing slogans!”
