Alongside justified concerns about the rise of the AfD, the radical-left parties in Germany also deserve critical attention. Remarkable support from Berlin’s crime clans should worry us too.

The Netherlands has more self-appointed Gaza experts than Germany experts, but it is high time we looked more carefully across our eastern border. Germany is in its greatest political transition since reunification in 1990, albeit in the wrong direction. Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) is polling as the largest party in all of Germany.

The capital, Berlin, has meanwhile degenerated into a hotbed of antisemitism, the worst since the Second World War. Amsterdam’s mayor Halsema would do better to look at Berlin than to sit down amiably with New York mayor Mamdani, who is not free of antisemitism.

When the AfD emerged as the largest party in the German state elections in Saxony-Anhalt and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, political Berlin reacted with resignation. It was only East Germany. The AfD seemed like the big bad wolf in a sparsely populated area full of ‘Ossis’. The big surprise, however, came from Berlin, where Die Linke, legal successor to the former East German ruling party SED, became the largest. Led by lead candidate Elif Eralp, Die Linke won 25.7 percent of the vote; the Christian Democratic CDU stalled at 18.8 percent.

The heirs of the GDR could have celebrated a cheerful victory party, had it not been for some mysterious guests who turned up to celebrate with them: the bosses of Arab crime syndicates in Berlin. There was Issa Remmo, leader of the Remmo clan, notorious for drug trafficking, extortion, protection money and money laundering. Method: brute violence. The center of this underworld is the district of Neukölln. In his wake came other gang leaders to celebrate the victory. The leadership of Die Linke did not know what to do with these unexpected gang leaders.

With its 3.9 million inhabitants, Berlin records more criminal offenses than all of Poland, with a population of 37.6 million citizens. After the fall of the Wall in 1989, many expected Berlin to become a shining star in Europe. At first it looked that way, but the city became a magnet for criminals. Crime clans from the Middle East, from Syria and Lebanon, found their way to West Berlin. In the mid-1970s, gang members traveled from Lebanon, ravaged by civil war, to the GDR and then via East Berlin to West Berlin. From there, crime syndicates grew to unmanageable proportions.

Die Linke and the clan leaders were soon on the same political wavelength. Political telepathy. According to Die Linke, the tough approach to the Arab clans was ‘racist’. That was music to the ears of the clan leaders. In Die Linke’s analysis, Berlin’s policing is ‘too harsh’. Hence: ‘less police’ resulting in ‘less crime’. Applause from the gang leaders guaranteed. Fighting clan formation was, according to Die Linke, ‘Islamophobic’. Once again, happy gang leaders.

Then the legal successor of the GDR stepped it up a notch. Israel was the source of all evil in the Middle East and ‘antisemitism’ became a weapon of political propaganda. The Arab clan world could not have put it better. That is what Die Linke propagated, and it ensured that 51% of the Muslim vote went to that party. Jewish citizens in Berlin became a target; the ‘Nie Wieder’ faded. The Berlin bourgeoisie was frightened by Die Linke’s communist demand: the expropriation of home ownership. Economic philosophy: if the rich are expropriated, the poor can live better!

This trend of antisemitism exists in Amsterdam too. Jewish citizens have to be careful in public. Criticism of Israel, which has been fighting for its survival in the Middle East since its founding in 1948, is recycled by the political left in European cities into antisemitism. With ‘students’ smashing everything in the front line and fearful administrators who think they are calming things down but make everything worse. It is a slippery slope toward times that seemed to be behind us.

Should PRO ever organize another Gaza event in Amsterdam: keep an eye on the visitors. You never know who might walk in.