“Abortion is a health service”, reads in a stripe in a ST game. Pauli, known for being a “left team”
Naked taboos, but full of convinced messages. The benches of German football stadiums are increasingly concerned about the country.
The right turn on the policy German, with the particular rise of the far-right party alternative to Germany (AFD), is also leaving mark in soccer.
Last year, many German soccer clubs and supporters organized demonstrations against the far right, both in the stadiums on play days and on the streets of their cities. Several important clubs of the two main German leagues, including the Werder Bremen, VFL BOCHUM, FSV Mainz 05, 1..
AFD’s sustained success seems to have attracted attention, a few days from the general election of 23 February.
But in these claims the FC Pauli. In a recent game, the fans of the Hamburg Club (who has a strong anti -fascist tradition) expressed their feelings singing songs such as: “Every Hamburg Hates AFD”.
They also celebrated the Holocaust International Memory Day, on January 27, holding a track with the following words “those who fight Nazis cannot count on the state.”
More racism, more political
However, political manifestations are still far from universal.
“I liked they had more courage”told Rico Noack, president of Board games (Social Games), an organization of fans that helps promote an inclusive society.
Noack says he has seen many “groups of supporters negotiate with each other and decide that something is ‘too political’, and then adhering to the slightest possible consensus or simply not pronounced.”
This is a paradox, because cultural wars in Germany often focus on football-which is by far the most popular sport in the country and has a fundamental influence on German society.
The 2022 Football World Championship at Qatar, for example, became a political issue when the German football team declared its intention to take the field with clamps with the motto One Love In the colors of the rainbow, in.
Likewise, last year, when Germany was host of the European Championship, AFD took the opportunity to launch its own attack on what it considered to be the “Woke” culture in football.
Maximilian Krahthe party’s main candidate for the European June elections, described the selection as a “Politically correct mercenary troop”.
“It’s the rainbow team, the Pride team,” he said, referring to the defense of LGBTQ+ rights for the team. “We can ignore it.”
Less taboos in the benches
“Football is more political than ever,” said Noack.
The president of Board games He sees the shift to the right in Germany’s political culture reflected in the culture of football, although he said he still “does not see truly right -wing tracks” in the stadiums.
But both Noacack and the journalist Ronny Blaschkewho has just published a book on racism in football, observe that the racism has become less taboo in the benches.
“Especially after the so -called refugee crisis in 2015, we observed a change to the right in the stadiums, because we have more racist incidents In the benches against black soccer players, ”said Blaschke.
“And social networks, so, whenever we have black German players in young teams or the senior national team, we can look at the comments sections and find many racist posts.”
What can you learn from fans?
Noack is skeptical about the influence of political cultures of soccer fans on society in general. However, admit that Football fans have some special powers.
When they organize protests, they have a spirit of confrontation and rebellion-combined with unity and sense of humor-which sometimes lacks in the regular anti-AFD manifestations.
“We can learn a lot from football fans. They are often very creative, they know well what to do to create effective media images, ”said Noack.
With football on the street, the fight continues
Susanne Franke is a member of the direction of SCHALKE 04 supporters initiativean anti -racist organization founded in 1992, when the violent right -wing hooligans were seen regularly in football stadiums.
Schalke is headquartered in the city of Gelsenkirchen, in what was the industrial heart of Germany in the Ruhr Valley. Although it was once a social democratic and center-left bastion, the industrial decline turned the city into one of the poorest of Germany and the far right gained land.
Schalke’s neighboring and largest rival club, Borussia Dortmund, also has a very feared neo-nazi contingent in its base of fans dating back to the 1970s.
Franke fears that football culture is returning to those times. “It has improved, but now it’s getting worse again. In many places, Adepts are fighting for the control of the narrative“, Disse de dw.
For Susanne, the decision of the Christian Democratic Union leader (CDU), Friedrich Merz, to approve a non-binding anti-immigration motion in the Bundestag (German Parliament) with the help of AFD made the work of his group even more urgent.
“For me, We look like the last resistance to fight for democracy In Germany, ”he says. “Whether it is a football adept or not, it is very important to take this very serious moment,” he said, in view of the February 23 elections.
Although there is no evidence that football supporters are more or less politically committed than anyone else in any other environment, the presence of football in German society usually makes them most visible when they express political opinions.
“Football has a great opportunity and a great reach”says Franke. “It is very visible in news, social networks and German society. That’s why I sincerely hope people hope to take a honest position and say something about it, ”he added.
