I didn’t demonstrate “against the right” because I wasn’t wanted there as a CDU member. This shows what started at the university: people like me are lumped together with right-wing extremists – and cancel culture is striking mercilessly more and more often.

At the beginning of this year: demonstrations are being called across the country, citizens are taking to the streets. Finally, after so long of sitting at home. Democracy thrives on people getting involved. Many people no longer agree with what is currently happening in the country.

In addition to the protests by farmers, people are gathering all over Germany in the cold January 2024 to stand up “against the right”. Broad alliances have been founded, ranging from trade unions to churches and clubs to parties.

Under the motto “Demonstration against fascism!”, for example, the demonstration in Darmstadt, which is co-organized by the local CDU leader Paul Wandrey, runs loudly through the city center to send a clear signal against fascism, the flaring nationalism and the deep contempt for humanity AfD to set.

Thousands of people also take to the streets in Erfurt. It’s a sunny day, there’s thick snow on the impressive cathedral square. It had snowed the days before and, as always, people skied and sledged down the cathedral steps – a real highlight in the state capital.

“Were you there too, Franca?” a friend from university asked me a few days later. “No,” I answer. “I won’t go to a demonstration where I’m not welcome as a CDU member.”

In fact, I was already on my way on the day of the demo when photos of the demonstration reached me via WhatsApp. Posters could be seen in the pictures. Among other things, it said: “AfD no – Merz is included – against the shift to the right”. Another sign read “CDU

Franca Bauernfeind (born 1998) is currently studying for a master’s degree in political science at the University of Erfurt. The enthusiastic competitive swimmer, violinist and choir singer is a scholarship holder of the Hanns Seidel Foundation, is involved in various university committees and is active as a journalist. Franca Bauernfeind became known nationwide as federal chairwoman of the Ring of Christian Democratic Students (RCDS) and member of the federal executive board of the CDU.

A “Welt” reporter speaks to demonstrators in the neighboring city of Weimar: “I simply don’t want a country that is ruled by a fascist party.” Above all, the major parties, especially the CDU, CSU and AfD, are in favor of discrimination, which is why must be demonstrated against them.

“Apparently many people think that I belong to the ‘brown sauce’ group. But I don’t support undifferentiated ‘lumping together’!” I explain my non-appearance to my fellow student. Promptly – how could it be otherwise – she answers me: “Aha! That’s what I thought! You don’t see the AfD as a threat to our democracy. So the anti-CDU signs weren’t wrong after all!”

This reaction is not new to me at all. And I know only too well what it’s like to be lumped in with the NPD, AfD and other right-wing radicals. This started in my first week at university.

This irritated me at the time; after all, I didn’t make any derogatory comments about my fellow students’ membership in relevant youth organizations; and I did not accuse her – who today sits on the state executive boards of the Left party, among other things – of complicity in the statements of a Sahra Wagenknecht.

Black Box Uni: Biotop left Ideologies

Couldn’t I just be me, Franca Bauernfeind, 18 years old and a member of the Junge Union out of political interest? With my own opinions and experiences, the content of which does not even completely agree with the Union?

And even if they did, at a time when individualism is at its peak, every individual should be allowed to form their own opinions and will. It was only much later, after my first semester, that I realized that political correctness has absolutely nothing to do with individualism, but rather is about forming cliques and pigeonholing (and thus tends towards the socialist school of thought).

Already in the first days at university I thought to myself: “This can’t be right, someone has to notice this!” I thought it was pretty unlikely that anyone other than these fellow students would approve of such a (un)culture of debate could. At least society, the political public outside the campus.

A fallacy, as it turned out in retrospect. FUNK, the online channel of the public broadcaster, compared the Union with the AfD in an Instagram story at the end of June 2023 with the video “What is right?” Politicians from both factions were equally described as “right-wing”.

The apology didn’t take long to arrive, it was said that the post didn’t meet journalistic standards. But the FUNK program manager’s sentence in his statement alone was an affront: “We at Funk understand that this representation is problematic because it puts conservative democratic parties on the same level as extremist attitudes.”

No, this representation is not only problematic, it is wrong! Christian Democratic is not right-wing extremist and certainly not just right-wing. And the Union as a people’s party is not only home to conservatives, but also liberal conservatives, Christians and people of other faiths – a wide range of society. In the political spectrum, the Union can be classified as center-right, but not “right-wing”. It unites the liberal, Christian-social and conservative currents in equal measure.

The apology was a farce, the statements made by those responsible stand for themselves and show a clear mindset. The “erroneous” Instagram story cannot be attributed to any carelessness in the journalistic industry. There are obviously people working there who are convinced that Union politicians are right-wing in the sense of right-wing extremist. This position is presented without shame on a public broadcasting channel. And I’m still wondering why, as a member of a democratic party on campus, I’m classified as “right-wing.”

But the legitimacy of such views began right there: at the university. In the academic environment that has pushed this zeitgeist. The managers and tomorrow’s informative and opinion-forming journalists are on campus today – the first signs can be seen at FUNK.

This zeitgeist has only recently been brought to the public. But apparently no one really cares. I myself don’t belong to the anti-capitalist student scene. I don’t reject boundaries. But I strive for plurality and diversity that doesn’t conform to this mainstream. This makes me, along with a few others, part of a minority at the university. At least among those who actively acknowledge their own position.

How does that feel? As if you were stuck in a drawer and asked yourself: “How did I end up here?” This process is intangible and nevertheless penetrates into the broader society – you can see it in the “anti-right” demonstrations At the beginning of this year and the posters described.

For my acquaintance from the university, the matter was clear: I am a right-winger because I am not going to the “demonstration against the right”. In a situation like this, it seems as if I, as a CDU member, can’t do anything right.

And yet I do what I think is right. I speak to people who are frustrated and want to vote for the AfD in protest. I can convince them that it is better to vote for the CDU. You can also get involved in small ways. The task in our increasingly polarized society is to discuss things on an equal footing and not to immediately discredit people.

And just because I don’t go to an event that doesn’t want me there doesn’t mean I’m on the right!