RFK Jr joins neo-Nazis in Berlin protest

Bill Weinberg
RKF Jr

Hundreds of far-right protesters broke through police barriers and tried to force their way into the German parliament building in Berlin on Aug. 29. Many were waving the black, white and red flag of the pre-1918 German Empire that once inspired the Nazis. “The fact that Nazis with imperial war flags try to storm the Bundestag recalls the darkest period in German history,” said Robert Habeck, co-leader of Germany’s Greens party. The action came as part of a broader demonstration against Germany’s pandemic restrictions. The protest, bringing out many so-called “Corona Truthers” who deny the pandemic altogether, was organized by right-wing parties including the anti-immigrant Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) and the deceptively named National Democratic Party (NPD), which is openly neo-Nazi. Some carried signs reading “Trump, please help,” and proffered conspiracy theories about Bill Gates seeking forced vaccinations. There were also many images of hearts, flowers, globes and other such feel-good symbols. Among the speakers was Robert F. Kennedy Jr, who ironically Nazi-baited German Chancellor Angela Merkel, saying: “Today Berlin is once again the front against totalitarianism.” (DW, AP, NYT, Daily Kos)

Another odious exponent of hippie fascism, Red-Brown politics and paradoxical fascist pseudo-anti-fascism.

Photo via Daily Kos

  1. RFK Jr ‘demands retraction’ on Berlin rally

    RFK Jr's anti-vax platform Children's Health Defense runs a piece saying he "demands retraction" from Daily Kos on the claim that he joined with neo-Nazis at the Berlin protest on Aug. 29. The piece reproduces a letter from his attorney to Daily Kos, asserting that the rally was actually organized by a coalition called Querdenken 711, "a broad-based, peaceful citizens' movement for freedom, peace and human rights." It asserts there was a "complete absence of extremist influence" at the protest, and there was "no evidence of Nazi iconography anywhere near the protest." It also emphasizes that "Mr. Kennedy's speech was a screed against Nazism." (Emphasis in original.) It threatens "legal action" if the article is not removed.

    This is all sheer dishonesty. There may have been no explicitly Nazi iconography, but this is phrased to exclude the German imperial flag, which is technically pre-Nazi but was taken up as a symbol by the early Nazis. Display of actual Nazi iconography is illegal in Germany, so Nazi-nostaligists have long resorted to the imperial flag as a "surrogate symbol." Yeah, Kennedy railed against Nazism—to accuse Germany's current democratic leadership of Nazi-like "totalitarianism," in Orwellian manner. And as for Querdenken 711, a look at the organization by Daily Beast reveals it as tweeting support for Trump and for Putin. German news service Deutsche Welle quotes Greens parliamentarian Konstantin von Notz saying, "Participants in a demonstration that the AfD and NPD also helped mobilize tried to storm the Reichstag."

    It will be interesting to see if Daily Kos will fold to pressure and remove the article, and if CounterVortex will likewise be hearing from RFK Jr's attorney.