“Unforgivable” is the strongest moral condemnation. In Christian theology, murderers, rapists, and child molesters can be forgiven and earn salvation if they accept Jesus Christ and make a sincere confession. However, Jesus said that “whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin.” (Mark 3:29)

In post-Christian, post-Western, post-white Europe, whoever blasphemes against universal equality is guilty of an eternal sin. Thus, Angela Merkel, the woman who threw the Continent into chaos with her immigration policy, said that to work with the nationalist Alternative for Deutschland Party (AfD) is “unforgivable.”

Angela Merkel (Credit Image: Kuhlmann/MSC via Wikimedia)

Chancellor Merkel made this extraordinary comment about attempts to form a government in the east German state of Thuringia. In October’s regional elections, the nationalist AfD came in second place, even outperforming Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU). The Left Party — which is quite far left — came in first, and its regional leader claimed a mandate to form a new government.

However, the non-leftist parties combined had just enough representatives to prevent a left-wing government. The CDU, AfD, and the small number of Free Democratic Party (FDP) MPs joined together to elect the FDP’s Thomas Kammerich the new state premier. AfD regional leader Björn Höcke proposed this arrangement.

Ordinarily, this would be considered a great gift to Mr. Kammerich and his Free Democratic Party. It was the smallest party in the coalition but he got the premiership. However, his success came with the help of the AfD which, because it stands for a Germany that remains German, must be treated as a “far right” pariah. This means never cooperating with it — certainly never letting it into a coalition.

So now that the storm has broken over his head — with Mrs. Merkel saying what he did was “unforgivable” — the hapless Mr. Kammerich is claiming he was somehow bamboozled into working with the AfD. He was the victim of a “perfidious trick to harm democracy” and is calling for new elections to “remove the stain of the AfD’s support.” It’s hard to take this seriously because there is a photograph of Mr. Kammerich and the the AfD’s Mr. Höcke publicly shaking hands.

Co-leader Norbert Walter-Borjans of the leftist Socialist Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) called the Thuringian agreement to cooperate with the AfD “an unforgivable dam break.” He accused “liberals” (meaning free market supporters in the European context) of covering for “right wing extremists.” The current German government is a “grand coalition” of the center-right and center-left parties. The Left has a great deal to lose if the center-right starts aligning with nationalists.

Norbert Walter-Borjans (Credit Image: Finanzministerium NRW / Wikimedia)

Meanwhile, Mr. Kammerich’s reaction reminds me of Republicans who apologize and plead ignorance when they are criticized from the left. It’s hard to believe he didn’t know what was happening. He simply couldn’t handle the heat. However, even though he has “resigned,” Mr. Kammerich will stay in office, because the CDU does not want new elections. Instead, the CDU wants to form a new majority in Thuringia with the SPD and possibly the Greens. Anything to “remove the stain of the AfD’s support.”

Bloomberg News calls shutting out the AfD a victory for “democracy.” This is absurd. Why should the party that came in second be kept out of the government? Essentially, the German political establishment and international media are saying that the representatives of almost one-in-four voters in Thuringia are not qualified to be part of a government. If this is democracy, it has nothing to do with the will of the people.

“Democracy” apparently means a system that freezes out certain parties, censors the media, spies on dissidents, and raids the home of anyone who complains too loudly. Within this century, the German population faces wholesale replacement. Immigrants are at the highest level ever, while the number of Germans is declining. This is an occupation government, arguably more hostile to its population than the old East German communist government.

Other nationalist parties in Europe face similar challenges. In Austria, Sebastian Kurz and his Austrian People’s Party ended their joint government with the nationalist Freedom Party after a media scandal. There were new elections, and Mr. Kurz formed a government with the far-left Green Party rather than be seen to be holding hands with “the far right.” Mr. Kurz is also presiding over a crackdown on Identitarians like Martin Sellner.

In Flanders, the Dutch-speaking region of Belgium, the nationalist and separatist Vlaams Belang came in second in May’s elections. A recent poll found most Belgians don’t think the Vlaams Belang should be excluded from government. A poll from December 2019 found the Vlaams Belang was the most popular party in Flanders. Nonetheless, the “center-right” New Flemish Alliance refused to join it in a nationalist coalition; the cordon sanitaireremains.

To the center-right, the worst enemy is always a genuinely nationalist party. Its politicians would rather work with socialists than patriots. If they can destroy any force to their right, “conservatives” can stay in office by exploiting popular discontent about mass immigration, terrorism, and political correctness without having to solve those problems. You can never trust the “center-right” to fight the left with the same ruthlessness that it uses against the real right. This is also why most conservatives don’t defend free speech online either.

This can’t last. The nationalist Lega Nord party isn’t in the governing coalition in Italy, but it is still polling better than any other party. There’s also another nationalist party rapidly growing to its right. Despite the scandal, the Freedom Party in Austria kept most of its support in the last election and it hasn’t been completely marginalized. Vlaams Belang is far stronger than it was just a few years ago.

In Thuringia, the AfD can claim that the political system is rigged against it and that establishment politicians ignore the voters. As nationalists gain popularity, it will be impossible to form a government without them, unless the center-right joins forces with the increasingly crazy extreme left.

Of course, that is exactly what Foreign Policy wants. A recent article claims Angela Merkel hasn’t been hard enough on nationalists and that the CDU should work with the Left Party, despite its radicalism. The real danger, writes Peter Kuras, is that not working with the Left Party “legitimizes” the AfD and its “racialized fear-mongering.”

Why should “conservatives” legitimize the far-left instead?  This is yet another attempt to convince conservatives that their role is to protect the leftist governing consensus and stifle opposition to the Great Replacement.

If history shows anything, it’s that the center-right would rather lose to the left than win with real patriots. However, if nationalist parties continue to grow, they may not need the so-called “center-right.” Europe’s survival is at stake and the “center-right” is doing nothing to save it. Voters are beginning to see this. German politicians rig the system because they are scared. They can see what’s coming.