Meet the Bavarian Christians who have veered left to support the Green Party

By Hans von der Brelie • last updated: 05/06/2019

The German Green Party has experienced a surge in support across Germany in the last year and particularly in the last EU election. They now control over 20% of the seats from Germany's delegation to the European Parliament. That's up from 12% in 2014.

One unexpected source of this support comes from Christians in Bavaria. Traditionally Bavaria is a Catholic stronghold with the Christian Social Union (CSU) dominating politics in this region. But recently many voters have become more vocal about environmental issues such as climate change and declining biodiversity.

In this feature of Insiders, Euronews spoke to a new supporter of the Green Party - Stephan Alof - who used to swing between voting for the Social-Democrats or CSU. Now he favours Green Party policy. He said he hopes they can fight the issues they campaigned on.

"What counts now is to walk the walk with regard to ecology, the fight against the extreme right, to support those in need and to youth unemployment across Europe. Those are the important topics to be tackled now."

Stephan owns a traditional German restaurant in Munich along with a few pubs and a bakery. He's also a Christian and voted for the CSU many times, the Bavarian counterpart to Angela Merkel's Christian-Democratic CDU. Now he's said he will never vote for them again:

"I was no longer able to support the snail's pace of the Christian-Democrats and the Social-Democrats in terms of environmental protection. Today, that's my viewpoint, the Greens are the only political party speeding up. They are the only ones who have realized a change is needed - not in 10 or 15 years, but right now."

Many of Stephan's friends are Christian supporters of the Green Party as well. The church he attends makes protecting nature a priority. After mass they hand out flower seeds for children to plant and the church has beehives on top of the rectory. People in Bavaria are concerned about environmental issues - so much so that it has sparked massive political action.

A Save-the-Bees petition launched in February and received 1.75 million signatures making it the most successful in the regions history. Well over 10% of the entire population signed it in person. Thousands of campaigners dressed up as bees and took to the streets leading up to the petitions deadline.

Bavaria has been a wealthy, centre-right voting region for a long time. This new surge in Green Party support is a strong veer to the left insofar as environmental policy is concerned and this is because the people there are feeling the effects of climate change.












Beekeepers in Bavaria are aware of threats to biodiversity as well. Euronews spoke to Matthias Rühl who has taken it upon himself to save bees from harmful pesticides. He set up a last minute bee saving operation with a few other people:

"This evacuation had to be done in the shortest possible time. We had almost no time, because we were aware that the chemical spraying helicopter could arrive at any moment. There were 8 of us helping each other for this evacuation of the bees."

He explained why bees are being harmed:

"They sprayed an insecticides to fight the gypsy moth. It is called Tebofenozid and it accelerates the moulting process... In each of those boxes some 20.000 to 30.000 bees are in their moulting stage. No one will make me believe that this insecticide does not influence the moulting in our beehives."

He said the problem will only get worse unless Europe acts:

"A lot of things have to change in Europe and they have to change rapidly. Direct payments should reward those farmers doing something for us, for society and for the environment. And this system of EU grants has to be changed immediately."

Climate change is having a noticeable effect on the region as well according to forestry expert, Ralf Straussberger. He works for the nature protection association "Friends of the Earth" and thinks a long term change in temperature could have huge consequences:

"It is a dramatic situation. If the politicians don't take action to stop climate change, we will get Mediterranean climatic conditions. Temperatures will go up four or five degrees (Celsius). Our local tree species will not support this, they will die... A massive rebuilding of the forest is needed, we need to replace dying trees and plant beeches and oaks. That's the only way to get stable forests for tomorrow."

ZIONISM IS RACISM

Kushner believes Palestinians can’t govern themselves, are more concerned with mortgages than statehood

Yumna Patel on June 3, 2019

Senior advisor and son-in-law to US President Donald Trump is making headlines again for comments he made in a television interview on Sunday, insinuating that he didn’t believe Palestinians were capable of governing themselves.

Peter Beinart suggests AIPAC should have to register as agent of Israeli government

Philip Weiss on June 1, 2019

Standing up for Ilhan Omar’s controversial point about allegiance to a foreign country, Peter Beinart says his children in a Jewish day school believe they should be loyal to both the US and Israel, and that AIPAC has sided with the Israeli government over the US one and maybe ought to have to register as a foreign agent.

Palestinian academic sues Quora, saying she was banned from the website for criticizing Zionism

Nada Elia on June 3, 2019

Dr. Rima Najjar is suing the website Quora after being banned from the website for reasons she believes are a direct result of her national origin. Nada Elia interviews Najjar about her experience, and discusses the implications of this disturbing case.

Kamala Harris mentions Israel 14 times, Tulsi Gabbard 0, in messages to Jewish org

Philip Weiss on June 4, 2019

Senator Kamala Harris is seeking to separate herself from the Democratic field by being an unapologetic booster of Israel. Her message to the AJC yesterday contains a vow– “I will do everything in my power to insure broad and bipartisan support for Israel’s security and right to self-defense” — but not a word of criticism of the “democratic and Jewish state.”

Debbie Wasserman Schultz launches a black-Jewish caucus featuring ‘anti-Muslim bigot’ Lee Zeldin

Michael Arria on June 5, 2019

On Monday members from the House of Representatives announced the establishment of the Congressional Caucus on Black-Jewish Relations, which was created to combat the rising tide of white nationalism. However, the group includes New York Rep. Lee Zeldin, the GOP congressman who has made headlines for his connections to the alt-right and his repeated attacks on Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar on Twitter.

Tulsi Gabbard Pushes No War Agenda – and the Media Is Out to Kill Her Chances

philip giraldijun 6, 2019

Voters looking ahead to 2020 are being bombarded with soundbites from the twenty plus Democratic would-be candidates. That Joe Biden is apparently leading the pack according to opinion polls should come as no surprise as he stands for nothing apart from being the Establishment favorite who will tirelessly work to support the status quo.

The most interesting candidate is undoubtedly Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, who is a fourth term Congresswoman from Hawaii, where she was born and raised. She is also the real deal on national security, having been-there and done-it through service as an officer with the Hawaiian National Guard on a combat deployment in Iraq. Though in Congress full time, she still performs her Guard duty.

Tulsi’s own military experience notwithstanding, she gives every indication of being honestly anti-war. In the speech announcing her candidacy she pledged “focus on the issue of war and peace” to “end the regime-change wars that have taken far too many lives and undermined our security by strengthening terrorist groups like Al-Qaeda.” She referred to the danger posed by blundering into a possible nuclear war and indicated her dismay over what appears to be a re-emergence of the Cold War.

read on...

Pompeo Accidentally Tells Truth About Failed Venezuela Coup

June 6 - Secretly recorded while speaking off the record to a group of supporters, Secretary of State Pompeo revealed that US policy toward Venezuela has been a disaster and that the US government has lied from the beginning about the level of support for the opposition and the ease of "restoring democracy" to the country. Will Pompeo be made to pay for revealing an inconvenient truth? Tune in to today's Liberty Report:

 

DNC swiftly kills the idea of a climate change debate

SO MUCH FOR IT'S ALL ABOUT POLICY NOT TRUMP

MASHABLE.COM

Florida’s Governor just signed a bill that will censor criticism of Israel throughout the state’s public schools

News 

Michael Arria on June 6, 20

On May 31, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed a bill that prohibits anti-Semitism in public schools and universities throughout the state. However, the legislation also equates criticism of Israel with anti-Semitism, effectively censoring the advocacy of Palestinian rights.

Two days before DeSantis officially signed HB 741 into law in Florida, he carried out a symbolic signing during a ceremonial state cabinet meeting in Israel. The session featured a variety of Israeli speakers and culminated with Florida lawmakers issuing a declaration of support for the country. “Since we’re in Jerusalem, we may actually get some interest in our Cabinet meetings for a change, which would be great,” jokedDeSantis during the meeting. A number of news organizations filed a lawsuit against the state’s government, claiming that the meeting violated Florida’s transparency law, as it took place in a foreign country and wasn’t made publicly accessible to journalists. Although they weren’t officially listed as members of DeSantis’ delegation, he was accompanied by pro-Israel megadonors Sheldon and Miriam Adelson.

HB 741 states that, “A public K-20 educational institution must treat discrimination by students or employees or resulting from institutional policies motivated by anti-Semitic intent in an identical manner to discrimination motivated by race.” The bill identifies anti-Semitism as calls for violence against Jews, Holocaust denial, or the promotion of conspiracy theories that target Jewish people, but it also contains an entire section that equates Israel critcism with the prohibited anti-Semitism. This includes, “applying a double standard to Israel by requiring behavior of Israel that is not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation.” According to the bill’s text, criticism of Israel is always anti-Semitic unless it is “similar to criticism toward any other country.”

“We know what could happen in Florida from the chilling effects we’ve already seen elsewhere: human rights defenders will be smeared as antisemites, investigated by schools, and in some cases punished. Events will be cancelled, or censored via bureaucratic harassment. Theses will not be written. Debates in class will not take place. And many activists will self-censor out of pure exhaustion,” Palestine Legal’s senior staff attorney Meera Shah told Mondoweiss, “All of this profoundly diminishes Florida’s ability to educate students to be leaders in a global economy.”

The House version of HB 741 was sponsored by State Representative Randy Fine, a rabidly pro-Israel lawmaker who has held office since 2016. In April, after Sen. Audrey Gibson voted against HB 741’s companion bill and called it “divisive”, Fine denouncedthe Senate Democratic Leader and called on Democrats to “hold her accountable.” “It is sad that in the world propagated by Washington Democrats like Congresswomen Ihlan Omar and Rashida Tlaib and Tallahassee Democrats like Audrey Gibson, fighting anti-Semitism is ‘divisive’, said Fine, “In this time of rising anti-Semitism around both the country and globe, it is unconscionable that the most powerful Democrat in the Florida Senate would vote against banning discrimination based on anti-Semitism.”

That same month, Fine made headlines for referring to a Jewish constituent as “Judenrat”, a term used to describe Jews who collaborated with the Nazis during World War 2. Fine used the word in reference to Paul Halpern, a Palm Bay resident who organized a panel discussion regarding the Israel/Palestine conflict. Fine took to Facebook to criticize the panel for being anti-Semitic. “First, there is no ‘Palestine,’” Fine wrote, “Second, having a bunch of speakers who advocate for the destruction of Israel but promise that this one time they won’t, is a joke. We should not engage these bigots. We crush them.” After Halpern pushed back on this assertion and pointed out that the majority of the panelists were Jewish, Fine responded, ″#JudenratDontCount..I know that Judenrat liked to keep tabs on all the Jews in order to report back to the Nazis back in that time, but no one is making you continue that tradition today.”

“In my mind, Judenrat is the worst thing that you can call a Jewish person,” Halpern toldthe Huffington Post, “He’s despicable as a representative and a person.”

Governor DeSantis is a close ally of the President and some believe that the Israel trip could help deliver Florida for Trump in 2020. “For a lot of Jewish voters, this trip puts an exclamation point on the Republican Party’s commitment to Israel and to Jewish people,” the Republican Jewish Coalition’s Neil Strauss recently proclaimed, “We saw a nice rise in support for Gov. DeSantis and we want to keep that going. Florida is the best example of where if Republicans gain Jewish voters, it can make a real difference.”

Although HB 741 faced little political resistance, a group of Jewish Floridians sent a letter to DeSantis in April asking him to veto the legislation. One of the letters signatories, the constitutional lawyer Alan Levine, co-authored an Orlando Sentinel op-ed the following month with community psychologist Donna Nevel which denounces the bill. “There is little doubt that a prosecution under HB 741 for criticizing Israel will be challenged as unconstitutional,” they wrote, “But beyond that, we should all be deeply troubled by any attempt by the government to put someone in jail simply for speaking out on a matter of such public concern as a country’s human rights violations.”