Cathaoirleach of Castlebar Municipal District Councillor Blackie K Gavin celebrated the twentieth anniversary of the very successful town-twinning between the Bavarian town Hochstadt an der Aisch and Castlebar with a tree planting ceremony on the grounds of the Leisure Complex at Lough Lannagh First Secretary of the Irish Ambassador to Germany The Castlebar ceremony and the official Zoom celebration live streamed by Mayo County Council on www.facebook.com/mayodotie gave people in both countries an opportunity to stay connected online for this 20th anniversary celebration Due to Covid restrictions introduced on the evening before the events in Dublin it meant Her Excellency the Ambassador for the Federal Republic of Germany Deike Potzel was unable to make the trip to Castlebar and instead joined the virtual element of the celebration by joining the Zoom meeting.  First Secretary at the Irish Embassy in Germany at the Tree planting ceremony in Höchstadt to mark the 20th anniversary of the town twinning of Castlebar AfD co-leaders Alexander Gauland and Alice Weidel It was prepared for the national leadership of the right-wing populist party Alternative for Germany (AfD) and it provides strong evidence that a local party chapter in the state of Saxony-Anhalt The document meticulously describes a "rapid increase of far-right extremist content" in the Facebook posts of AfD party members in Börde These range from anti-Semitic grumblings ("America and the Jews are Germany's biggest enemy") to fantasies of killing refugees or leading Social Democrats such as ex-Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel ("Filthy pigs like him used to be killed") There were even appeals to an even more extremist group the National Democratic Party of Germany ("NPD The AfD's federal leadership now intends to take action The right-wing extremist activities in Börde tolerated and concealed by local AfD leaders has been known to national AfD leaders for the last year an internal party arbitration board blocked the move They intend to dissolve the chapter and kick the ringleaders out of the party the AfD doesn't just have a right-wing extremist problem in small eastern German chapters Some extremists have advanced to leadership positions within the party Leading functionaries either turn a blind eye or actively facilitate the party's radicalization It has become increasingly evident that some of the party's most prominent personalities have turned their backs on democracy altogether The party's co-leader Alexander Gauland muses publicly about a "system change" in Germany and has said he wants to "banish from power" anyone who supports Chancellor Angela Merkel The head of the AfD's state chapter in Brandenburg is an old hand in far-right circles and enjoys electrifying crowds with neo-Nazi-style provocations ("Those who don't love Germany should leave!") But the most prominent far-right extremist in the party is Björn Höcke head of the AfD's state chapter in Thuringia who has denigrated Merkel as a "dictator" and wrote a book in which he foretold a new start for Germany under strongman leadership it's no wonder that the AfD's base doesn't feel particularly inclined to moderate its rhetoric The only question is why the authorities have hesitated for so long Left-wing politicians have long called for the AfD to be placed under official surveillance Ever since the party's functionaries were seen marching through the eastern German cities of Chemnitz and Köthen alongside far-right extremists a convicted criminal who founded the xenophobic Pegida protests in Dresden such calls for surveillance have even begun emanating from the initially reserved Christian Democratic Union (CDU) "The AfD is evolving toward far-right extremism," says Thomas Strobl interior minister of the German state of Baden-Württemberg The unity among extremists that was on display in Chemnitz showed "that we are faced with a challenge." Strobl notes that a decision about whether to place the AfD under surveillance must ultimately come from the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) as the country's domestic intelligence agency is officially known But: "If the prerequisites for monitoring are met it has become increasingly obvious that the AfD deserves to be monitored by the authorities "The party's rhetoric is seditious," he says The AfD presents a unique problem to the BfV What began as a bourgeois party founded by a group of euro-skeptic professors has gradually turned into an anti-Islam anti-immigrant umbrella organization that attracts well-behaved citizens and far-right radicals alike the party will control seats in every state parliament in addition to being the strongest opposition party in federal parliament in Berlin it won 10 percent of the vote in Bavarian state elections Prior to that vote, AfD co-leader Alice Weidel  spent weeks campaigning in Bavaria At a speech last Wednesday in the town of Höchstadt an der Aisch she talked about her days as an economics major in the nearby university city of Bayreuth "Those were the good ol' days," she said to cheers from the roughly 60 AfD supporters who had gathered she had sat on a stage in Bad Aibling as the local candidate for state parliament denounced the "negroes" in the area saying he was afraid of being "coughed on" by them because they're known to carry diseases like AIDS The AfD's own video of the event showed Weidel smiling during the speech What she didn't mention is that elements of her own AfD are likewise in the agency's crosshairs On the contrary: She announced that her party had recently filed an official complaint against Interior Minister Horst Seehofer for calling the AfD "destructive for Germany." With Hans-Georg Maassen in charge of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution for the last several years -- before he was removed recently after being accused of pandering to the far-right -- the agency tended to drag its feet when it came to the AfD Some state intelligence services have long implored their federal counterpart to do more to cast light on the party's connections to far-right groups The agency is now conducting an official review A decision is expected by the end of the year about whether the AfD should be placed under complete surveillance The state intelligence services were supposed to have sent the results of their own investigations to the federal agency's headquarters by the end of the first week of October and all but three delivered And while some states offered evidence of connections between the AfD and far-right extremist groups Saxony hasn't bothered to file a report at all -- despite the fact that the AfD polls at 25 percent there that party functionaries are closely allied with the Islamophobic group Pegida and that members of an alleged far-right terrorist cell known as "Revolution Chemnitz" attended a now-infamous "funeral march" organized by the AfD the law says "there must be real evidence of efforts against the liberal democratic order." Suspicions aren't enough anti-democratic mutterings can't only come from a few rogue members For the government to monitor a political party extremists must have a "controlling influence." the agency went after another far-right extremist group known as the Republikaner "Their functionaries speak of a flood of foreigners" that will lead to a "gradual de-Germanification of Germany," reads one of the domestic intelligence agency's reports from 1994 It continues: "Vilifying and racist statements" underscore far-right extremist ideologies that can be traced "all the way up to the party's leadership." The report also said the party attackes "institutions and representatives of liberal democracy" in a "disparaging way." The same could be said about the AfD today Its leaders have warned against an "Umvolkung" in Germany a word which refers to the forced change of the population's ethnic composition They have characterized refugees as "invaders," the German government as a "regime" and the Third Reich as nothing but a "speck of bird shit" on German history Image shared by AfD youth group: "Fastest asylum hearing in Germany Rejects up to 1,400 asylum applications per minute!" "The authorities have let the AfD do what it likes for too long," says Steffen Kailitz an extremism researcher at the Hannah Arendt Institute in Dresden An early intervention could have possibly slowed the most radical elements of the party nearly all local chapters in eastern Germany have ties with far-right extremism," Kailitz says The worldview of the AfD's most conservative wing is indistinguishable from that of far-right extremist groups like the Identitarian Movement Both strive for "ethnic-cultural purity" of the German people a notion for which there is no room in the German constitution Respected constitutional law experts agree "Parts of the party are in pursuit of goals that would justify putting them under observation," says the Leipzig-based legal scholar Christoph Degenhart a law professor in Berlin who was involved in efforts to ban the NPD views Höcke's chapter in Thuringia as a clear-cut case that merits observation "When the leader of a state chapter spreads nationalist ideology like Höcke does it definitely justifies observation," Möllers says And yet domestic intelligence officials are hesitant There's nothing they fear more than an AfD appeal against being put under observation especially since the German Constitutional Court has placed high hurdles in the way of monitoring elected officials "The Office for the Protection of the Constitution does not choose whom it deals with," says Torsten Voss who heads the state intelligence agency in Hamburg in addition to coordinating the work of all state-level domestic intelligence agencies around the country but must always be well-informed and based on the facts." The article you are reading originally appeared in German in issue 42/2018 (October 13th The state agency in Thuringia has been weighing whether to monitor Höcke's chapter -- explicitly based on his increasingly seditious public appearances Höcke told his supporters that the "time of the wolf" had arrived in Germany He also urged police officers to disobey their superiors otherwise they would be held accountable after the people took back power Höcke was chosen this weekend as the AfD's lead candidate for state elections in 2019 the head of Thuringia's state intelligence agency referring to the notorious East German secret police said last week: "If the AfD taps Björn Höcke to be its lead candidate the party would make unambiguously clear where it stands." is already under observation in the states of Bremen and Lower Saxony where links between the JA and neo-Nazis or the Identitarian Movement are particularly evident accuses the youth organization of "pure racism." The situation in Lower Saxony is hardly better DER SPIEGEL is in possession of screenshots from a WhatsApp group in which JA functionaries questioned the Holocaust: "It didn't happen the way people claim." One participant voiced interest in founding a "Horst Wesel fighting community," named after a prominent leader of the Nazi Party's stormtroopers Someone else expressed longing for a "final solution to the Muslim question." There were no protestations "Do you miss me?" Photo from an AfD youth group chat said she was "appalled" when asked about the WhatsApp messages She said her state chapter consistently cracked down on far-right radicalism in the party After the contemptible demonstration in Chemnitz The party was being accused of harboring neo-Nazis and the government was considering whether to place it under official surveillance So it put together a five-person commission was not to root out far-right extremist elements within the party its aim was simple: Come up with a strategy to get the authorities off its back and local sculptor Cathal McCarthy were welcomed to Davitt College by principal Mr sculptor Cathal McCarthy made an exciting presentation to Mayor Brehm outlining his ideas for his sculpture of Peace for Höchstadt This sculpture will be a celebration of the Freundschaft (Friendship) and Partnerschaft (Partnership) that has existed between Castlebar and Höchstadt Mayor Brehm also met with German teachers Annette Newall Linda Monaghan and Ailish McDonagh as well as German language learners This sculpture project is in collaboration with students from Realschule Höchstadt and Davitt College German language learners in Davitt College and English language learners in Realschule Höchstadt will be given an opportunity to create short poems (Elfchen) on the theme of Peace which will then be recorded by the artist and installed into the sculpture in Höchstadt Castlebar town is twinned with Höchstadt an der Aisch in Bavaria Since September 2000 there have been several fruitful collaborations and exchanges between the two towns Following submissions from Castlebar based artists a deputation from Höchstadt arrived in Castlebar to visit the studio of sculptor Cathal McCarthy and went to see some of the artist’s public artworks he has created nationally McCarthy travelled to Höchstadt for a meeting with Mayor Brehm and council representative Dr It was decided by the Höchstadt Council to commission the artist to create a contemporary artwork exploring the theme of peace for their town park in collaboration with the young language learners of sister schools Realschule Höchstadt and Davitt College The theme of peace is a particularly important one for Europe Now more than ever with the current crisis in the Ukraine is the voice of young people writing and sharing their thoughts and ideas about peace This sculpture would celebrate the twinning of Höchstadt and Castlebar and bring an important focus to the theme of peace The text/words/poetic elements would be created by students of the Realschule Höchstadt and their sister school Davitt College These written creations or ‘Elfchen’ (poems of 11 words) would be embedded into a sound activated capsule within the sculpture The completed sculpture will take pride of place in the Park of the Cultural Mile in Höchstadt Student voices from Davitt College and sister school Realschule Höchstadt would be heard in the park as people come close to the sound activated sculpture Davitt College’s German Department looks forward to being part of this collaborative project Castlebar woman Tara Baynes has been appointed a public diplomacy officer with Ireland’s Consulate in Munich she takes up her new role with the Department of Foreign Affairs on March 1 next It’s a significant step in her career after working in the European Parliament since September 2021 as an accredited parliamentary assistant (APA) to a German MEP It provided her with the opportunity to work in a foreign language and to experience the world of politics from a completely different perspective Tara elaborated: “Working as an APA is a thrilling job but you always need to be top of your game being up to date on not just the headlines of their country but also those of the EU 27.” she joined the nearly 9,000-strong civil service of the European Parliament She said: “Nine thousand people may seem like a huge number of bureaucrats but they work for over 500,000,000 EU citizens the city of Frankfurt in Germany has a civil service of nearly 30,000 people for a population of 800,000 inhabitants My office sits right beside the protocol entrance of the Parliament which means I have had the daily pleasure of observing the full pageantry of international protocol at play “I’ve been lucky enough to shake hands with the King of Belgium “Working in the civil service also means working with all 720 MEP offices from all political parties across the 27 Member States shared music programmes and collaborative sports days we have much more in common than what divides us “I love sharing what it was like growing up in Castlebar with my continental colleagues Even something as small as a Tayto sandwich feels like I am bringing Castlebar closer to the heart of Europe the corridors of the European Parliament are no stranger to ex-students of Castlebar and Mayo secondary schools “This is certainly evident when it comes to Irish celebrations around St when it is possible to see a Mayo flag flying from some office windows or on All-Ireland Sunday when the Irish pubs in the European Quarter are a sea of green and red “They say that no matter where you are in the world you will always find someone in a Mayo jersey “Despite being one of the smallest Member States many of the senior positions in the EU are held by Irish people There is no reason why a student of a Mayo secondary school cannot be one of them is from the smallest Member State - Malta - which proves that you do not need to be from the biggest country or from a wealthy background to make it to the top recently peppered me with questions about politics telling me what Commissioner Flynn told him in his office in the European Commission in 1995: ‘I sold pigs as a child on Market Square Nobody here can teach anything after that!’ “While I may not have been a Market Square trader myself I could not agree more; young people from Ireland are right up there with our European counterparts in terms of competitiveness.” Later this year Castlebar celebrates the 25th anniversary of its town twinning with Höchstadt an der Aisch a charming town in Germany’s Franconian region in Bavaria Castlebar and Höchstadt may appear quite different we have discovered that we share much more than we initially thought and a deep-rooted appreciation for heritage and tradition The partnership between Castlebar and Höchstadt has fostered friendships delegations from Castlebar visit Höchstadt celebrating our shared European identity while appreciating the unique qualities of each town which began as a small gesture of friendship has grown into a powerful symbol of European solidarity we have a shared interest in building a peaceful and prosperous Europe “The bonds we have formed with Höchstadt highlight that when we embrace our commonalities rather than focus on our differences To me this is the spirit of cooperation that the EU embodies.” I remember the simple childhood joys of living in the town; whether that was above the Tweed Centre on Main Street or spending time on my grandmother’s farm in Belcarra Those are the memories I think about on those dreary winter evenings in Brussels one glance at the tricolour flying in front of the European Parliament and I have come to realise that home is always closer than it seems,” she added.