Party co-chairwoman Frauke Petry said in an interview published Sunday that words such as “voelkisch” shouldn’t be taboo any longer. Asked whether she would include the word “voelkisch,” Petry responded that she doesn’t use the term herself but dislikes the fact that it is only used negatively. “Her statement that one should work on giving the term ‘voelkisch’ a positive meaning is disgusting,” the daily Neue Westfaelische wrote in an editorial. Along the way, AfD has tried to portray itself as the only true defender of the German ‘Volk’. Nationalist sentiment didn’t evaporate with Germany’s unification in 1871 but rather grew into a myth of German uniqueness in the world.

Source: National Post September 13, 2016 16:18 UTC