{"id":365116,"date":"2024-05-29T15:46:57","date_gmt":"2024-05-29T13:46:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2024\/05\/29\/amour-toujours-germania-elettori-destra\/"},"modified":"2024-06-24T15:00:09","modified_gmt":"2024-06-24T13:00:09","slug":"what-the-remake-of-lamour-toujours-in-the-extreme-right-tells-us-about-young-german-voters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2024\/05\/29\/what-the-remake-of-lamour-toujours-in-the-extreme-right-tells-us-about-young-german-voters\/","title":{"rendered":"What the remake of ‘L’amour toujours’ in the extreme-right tells us about young German voters"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels – All\u00a0of Germany is talking about the Italian DJ Gigi D’Agostino<\/strong> and his immortal L’amour toujours<\/em><\/strong><\/a>, but certainly not because of artistic matters, but\u00a0because the dance song first released in 1999 – and which, after two decades, is still a hit in discos and stadiums across half of Europe – has been turned into a far-right anthem in Germany with the use of a racist slogan<\/strong>, and has been sung for months by young Germans attracted by the rhetoric and political messages of an increasingly radical right-wing in the country.<\/p>\n

\"Extreme<\/a>
A map of all the places in Germany where incidents of using the song\u00a0L’amour toujours<\/em> with the racist slogan Deutschland den Deutschen, Ausl\u00e4nder raus <\/em> have been recorded in the past six months (source: Funk, based on newspaper reports)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Bringing the issue of the use of a\u00a0catchy song -which not surprisingly is also used as the basis for stadium choruses in Italy as well as in Germany and other European countries – to the attention of the entire German public was the video<\/a> posted on social media in which a group of young people sing L’amour toujours <\/em>outside a bar in Sylt<\/strong> (a German island in the North Sea), using the words Deutschland den Deutschen, Ausl\u00e4nder raus <\/em>(“Germany to the Germans, out with the foreigners”)<\/strong>, a racist slogan easily traced to neo-Nazi circles. One of the boys holds two fingers under his nose (a gesture that alludes to Adolf Hitler) and raises his right arm – to the beat of the music – in a way that might be reminiscent of the Nazi salute.<\/p>\n

\n

Twitter has deleted the old video. Here it is again. pic.twitter.com\/m0uFwq2eSt<\/a><\/p>\n

– Nora Zabel (@norazabel) May 23, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Late last week, the case went national, and the German chancellor\u00a0Olaf Scholz<\/strong> commented on the video, calling it “disgusting.” Reached by Die<\/em> Spiegel<\/em>, the Italian DJ underlined<\/a> that “my song is about a wonderful, great, and intense feeling that unites people, it’s love,” but did not distance himself further from the extremist and racist use of his most famous song now rampant in Germany. So much so\u00a0that several festivals, discos, and bars across the country<\/strong> – including Oktoberfest, the world’s largest fair held in\u00a0Munich –\u00a0began banning it<\/strong>\u00a0due to the risk of having to be involved in such incidents later on. But the issue that for months has been disturbing public opinion is behind the transformation of a dance song with no political connotations\u00a0into a far-right anthem, or better, \u00a0the shift of the young German electorate increasingly to the right<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Germania<\/a>
(credits: Ina Fassbender \/ Afp)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/figure>\n

A study recently conducted in the EU member country, at the same time as\u00a0the wave of events<\/a> against the radical right-wing Alternative f\u00fcr Deutschland (AfD) party, shows this. Youth in Germany 2024<\/em><\/a> was conducted by three researchers surveying a sample of two thousand young Germans between the ages of 14 and 29 – interviewed between January and February – that showed\u00a0a trend of gradual closure toward policies to welcome migrants and adherence to ideals promoted by parties like the AfD<\/strong>. The researchers\u00a0said they were “surprised” by the study’s findings that\u00a022 percent of respondents would vote for Alternative f\u00fcr Deutschland<\/strong> (more than double the number from just two years ago) due to economic stagnation, inflation, high rents, and wars in Ukraine and the Middle East that have eroded a sense of security. Although\u00a0young voters do not seem to pick up on the anti-Europeanism of the far right<\/strong> (only 13 percent agree that “Germany would be better off without the EU”), the share of those in favor of welcoming migrants has plummeted from 57 percent to 26 percent.<\/p>\n

With the June European elections just around the corner (in Germany on June\u00a09), last week, under pressure from the French Rassemblement National, the Presidency of the Identity and Democracy group in the European Parliament (the same group to which the League adheres) expelled AfD Germans<\/a> because of statements made by its leading candidate, Maximilian Krah<\/strong>, on\u00a0not condemning the past Nazi special forces SS. “I will never say that anyone who had an SS uniform was automatically a criminal<\/strong>,” Krah said<\/a>, triggering an immediate reaction from the French right: “We will no longer ally ourselves with the AfD in the next legislature,” Thibaut Fran\u00e7ois,\u00a0<\/strong>the head of international relations in Strasbourg for Rassemblement National, said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The famous song by Italian DJ Gigi D’Agostino, still widely played in discos and stadiums, is at the center of a major controversy in Germany over its transformation into a racist anthem, and several festivals have banned it. Studies reveal that Alternative f\u00fcr Deutschland is the leading party among 14-29 year olds<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5647,"featured_media":365039,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"source_name":"","source_url":"","via_name":"","via_url":"","override_template":"0","override":[{"template":"1","single_blog_custom":"","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_share_counter":"0","show_view_counter":"0","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"override_image_size":"0","image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post":"0","trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post":"0","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","sponsored_post_name":"","sponsored_post_url":"","sponsored_post_logo_enable":"0","sponsored_post_logo":"","sponsored_post_desc":"","disable_ad":"0"},"jnews_primary_category":{"id":"","hide":""},"jnews_override_counter":{"override_view_counter":"0","view_counter_number":"0","override_share_counter":"0","share_counter_number":"0","override_like_counter":"0","like_counter_number":"0","override_dislike_counter":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25681],"tags":[26267,26264,25777,25778,26748],"class_list":["post-365116","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-alternative-for-germany-en","tag-european-english-english-english-english-english-english-english-english-english-english-english-english-english-english-english-english-english-english","tag-europeanelections-2024-en","tag-european24-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365116","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5647"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=365116"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365116\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":365382,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365116\/revisions\/365382"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/365039"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=365116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=365116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=365116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}