Report: German Hate Groups Propagandizing Pride Celebrations to Recruit Youth

Fringe-right groups in Germany have hit on a way to lure youth to their cause: They're targeting Pride celebrations and demonizing the LGBTQ+ community in their messaging.

Politico details that "extremists have mobilized against Pride events scheduled for this summer, planning counter demonstrations that purport to celebrate traditional, heterosexual relationships.

"It's a message, experts say, that is drawing a growing number of young Germans to the extreme right."

One online ad for a homophobic counter-demonstration at a Pride event in the town of Bautzen in Eastern Germany uses the jingoistic slogan, "Man and woman. The true foundation of life," the writeup notes.

One right-wing extremist behind the counterdemonstration in Bautzen declared in a video, "enough of this Pride month, enough of all the rainbow flags hanging everywhere: On schools, town halls, even in the German armed forces," and declared that Pride month "belongs to the people who built this country, who stand up, work and fight every day for their families, for their homeland."

Politico noted that a significant number of the right-wing extremists expected to show up in and confront Pridegoers are in their teens.

The youthful energy fringe-right groups seek to attract can be aggressive – and, Politico noted, tinged with hints of violence.

"The threats are much harsher online because of the supposed anonymity," event organizer Lea Krause told the outlet. "But it's tough on the street too, simply because you're face to face with people. And they know exactly who you are, and you also know who they are."

"Since the middle of last year, 'new youth groups have emerged in the right-wing scene' that target the CSD events, Germany's Federal Criminal Police Office said in an emailed statement," Politico went on to add.

German law enforcement take the threats seriously – and they should. "A CSD parade in the Bavarian city of Regensburg planned for July had to be rescheduled due to threats against its organizers," Politico relayed. "In the small eastern German city of Wernigerode, a 20-year-old man allegedly threatened to open fire on the local CSD event. Police later found ammunition at the suspect's house, according to media reports."

Moreover, in a chilling incident that might recall a foiled terroristic plot three years ago to attack a Pride event in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, police in Berlin "said they prevented a violent attack on participants amid a counter-demonstration planned by a right-wing extremist group."

The right-wing political party Alternative for Germany (AfD) seems to help spread the extremist sentiments that seem to be growing in Germany, including with an attempt to "rebrand... Pride month as Stolzmonat," the news outlet said.

Stolzmonat literally translates to "pride month," though the intention in this case would seem to be to promote a certain strain of heterosexual aggression. Framing the rebranding in a relatively inoffensive manner, AfD says that Stolzmonat "set[s] an example of traditional values, family ties and stability in uncertain times."

But there appears to be an opportunistic quality to the far right's newfound focus on Germany's LGBTQ+ demographic.

"For a long time, the German far right focused on migration, Islam, EU skepticism and the coronavirus," University of Tübingen researcher Sabine Volk told Politico. "But in the aftermath of the pandemic, we have seen an increased focus on queer-phobia, anti-LGBTQ+ discourse and, since last year, protest activities."

Volk explained the far right's methods of radicalizing young people, with "[r]ecruiting often happen[ing] within seemingly apolitical organizations, including at combat sports and mixed martial arts clubs."

Explained Volk, "If organizations are not clearly attributable to the far-right spectrum, that seems to make them more attractive to young people who are not necessarily attracted to a party, but to a shared experience."

Once drawn in, though, young people are inculcated by extremists who use "what they portray as traditional values."

Criminality has seemingly grown along with such recruitment efforts, as has what Federal Criminal Police Office leader Holger Münch called "a shift to the right and an increase in the acceptance of violence" that "a share of young people" have bought into.

"Extreme-right crimes surged by nearly 50 percent last year, according to police figures," Politico relayed.