BPresident Frank-Walter Steinmeier attended a ceremony in the Berliner Ensemble, where a number of “Ambassadors for Democracy and Tolerance” were honored. Chancellor Olaf Scholz sat a tweet on the constitution, and Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (both SPD) warned to “protect democracy” – not much more was organized on “Day of the Basic Law”, on which the promulgation of the constitution on May 23, 1949 is commemorated.
The Union wants to change that and generally make “political symbols and rituals” more visible to the public. This Wednesday, the parliamentary group of the CDU and CSU will submit a corresponding motion to the Bundestag under the heading “Strengthening the Constitution and Patriotism”. Germany should show the flag more strongly, the national anthem should be sung more often at public events, according to the paper that is available to WELT, among other things. The CDU and CSU will not only be in a rather lost position in the parliamentary debate.
What is celebrated in other states with ceremonies and nationwide celebrations and is even a big festival in some federal states with a view to commemorating the entry into force of the state constitutions is dealt with rather casually by the respective federal governments in Berlin. The concept of “constitutional patriotism” established by the political scientist Dolf Sternberger is regarded in this country as an expression of German national feeling that is just about capable of gaining a majority. The constitution itself, however, is rarely the focus – it is simply accepted that it exists, that it works.
“Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier is only honoring this year’s Basic Law Day with his participation in a stage discussion on diverse society,” criticizes Andrea Lindholz (CSU), deputy leader of the Union. “Even earlier formats such as awarding orders or coffee tables in Bellevue Palace never achieved sufficient public awareness to strengthen the identification of citizens with their state.”
Lindholz demands: “If we want to anchor constitutional patriotism in the German population in the long term, May 23rd must become a national day of remembrance.”
However, the Union’s request goes further. It is required to develop a “national political patriotism”. With “year-round visibility of national symbols – especially the federal flag – in public space”. The national anthem should be “sung more frequently at public events and continue to be maintained as an integral part of German songs”. The Bundeswehr should increasingly hold pledges and appeals on special occasions in public spaces, and October 3rd, the day of German unity, should no longer be “experienced only as a day off”.
Merkel and her controversial little flag moment
The initiative specifically focuses on certain population groups. According to the application, foreigners living in Germany should be “addressed by the connecting and inviting potential of patriotism and their identification with the German state should be strengthened”. For East Germany, the Union diagnoses a “partially missing connection to their own nation”, from which “a special commitment to patriotic questions must now arise”.
While the CDU and CSU voted unanimously in favor of the application in the respective committee meetings, it is likely that the other parliamentary groups will reject it in the Bundestag. With the traffic light parties and the left anyway. But also with the AfD, which has to fear that the Union wants to occupy one of its central issues. The CDU and CSU are prepared, the patriotism application is to be moved to the interior committee and the target of expert hearings – that is, to simmer.
The expected biting reflex is that critics of patriotic aspirations, national symbols and public Bundeswehr events are up in arms and accuse the Union parties of a relapse into nationalism. The Union accepts this because the patriotism initiative is part of the realignment of the party – and its coming to terms with the past.
In the 16 years of Angela Merkel’s (CDU) chancellorship, the Union had won its majorities mainly because it was able to score points in mainstream society. That secured Merkel the chancellorship for more than 5,860 days and four legislative periods – but allowed the AfD to germinate and grow on the right-hand edge.
The CDU’s alleged “shift to the left” under the former chancellor, which conservative Christian Democrats and long-time CDU voters have been complaining about to this day, continues to drive the party. Unforgotten is the moment on the election night of September 22, 2013, when Angela Merkel, during the CDU victory party, visibly angrily took a little Germany flag from her then General Secretary Hermann Gröhe. The scene, which lasted only a few seconds and was captured by cameras, has not yet been processed in the CDU and leaves the question of the relationship between the CDU and the nation open.
Party and faction leader Friedrich Merz is now trying not only to present the Union as an “alternative to traffic lights”, but also to carefully bring it onto a more conservative course. Without frightening the voters in the center and without wanting to make a serious attempt to lure away supporters from the AfD on a large scale. This is now considered hopeless. Part of this balancing act is now the patriotism request.
“We advocate a patriotism that does not need to be wrapped in cotton wool with epithets. Enlightened or cosmopolitan patriotism – these are all pleasant neologisms, but it is not patriotism that is problematic, but nationalism. We clearly distance ourselves from that,” says CDU MP Philipp Amthor, who initiated the application. “Our national symbols, which include our anthem, have great unifying and identity-forming potential. We should emphasize this even more clearly in our immigration society.”
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