There has been controversy in Germany because the AfD, or "Alternative for Deutschland", one of that nation's most popular political parties, which is against mass immigration into the European Union, has been designated "Right-wing Extremist" by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, the domestic Intelligence Agency. Why? Because "the ethnicity- and ancestry-based understanding of the people prevailing within that party is incompatible with the free democratic order".
That exact same "understanding" characterizes New Zealand Parliamentarians from our Labour Party, Green Party, Te Pāti Māori, and National Party (whose leader, the Prime Minister, said there is "nothing he likes" about the now defunct Treaty Principles Bill, which affirmed that everyone "is equal before the law", without discrimination based on ethnicity and ancestry).
Consequently, using German legal definitions, 85% of NZ Parliamentarians are "Right-wing extremists" whose views are "incompatible" with a "free democratic order". Just saying.
Professor Robert MacCulloch holds the Matthew S. Abel Chair of Macroeconomics at Auckland University. He has previously worked at the Reserve Bank, Oxford University, and the London School of Economics. He runs the blog Down to Earth Kiwi from where this article was sourced.
1 comment:
Quite right Professor, quite right. Who could have guessed?
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