At the beginning of May, the Hamburg parliamentary faction Bündnis 90/Die Grünen invited interested citizens to a panel discussion in the Kaisersaal of Hamburg City Hall. The topic: right-wing extremism in Europe. The panel members included Stephen Albrecht, a researcher of right-wing extremism and a research associate in the NEOVEX project at the IFSH; Nissar Gardi, education officer at Arbeit und Leben e.V.; Hannah Neumann, Green Party/European Free Alliance member of the European Parliament; and Andreas Speit, journalist, publicist and an expert on right-wing extremism. The event was moderated by Alske Freter, member of the Hamburg Parliament’s Green faction.
A key topic was the increasing transnational networking among far-right parties in Europe. Despite this worrying trend, the internal tensions and rifts within these groups were also discussed, particularly their stances on Russia and the Russian invasion of Ukraine. However, all the experts on the panel agreed that these disagreements would hardly be reflected in the poll ratings of the European Right. This is because right-wing populist and far-right parties are very skilful at playing down internal problems and diverting attention to familiar images of the enemy.
Nissar Gardi called for more focus to be placed on the victims' perspective and for the everyday hatred to which many people in Germany are exposed to be taken seriously. In this context, Stephen Albrecht emphasised that extremism is not exclusively a problem of the political fringes, but that its components and preconditions are deeply rooted in society. This understanding is necessary in order to combat extremism effectively.
The meeting between far-right actors and the AfD in Potsdam at the beginning of the year was also addressed. According to media reports, the expulsion of millions of people from Germany was discussed at this meeting. The panellists talked about the resulting threat posed by the AfD to the free constitutional order and democracy in Germany and Europe. They emphasised that this meeting symbolised the AfD's increasing rapprochement with neo-fascist topics.
The event was part of this year's Hamburg Europe Weeks programme.