Photo: Klasse Gegen Klasse

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Munich, Germany/At Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (LMU), the university chair is reviewing whether the university group of the AfD should have access to the institution’s facilities. With around 40 anti-racist activists present, the AfD’s request had already been declined by the “Konvent der Fachschaften,” a student assembly with very limited powers.

LMU places great emphasis on the remembrance of Hans and Sophie Scholl, who lost their lives in the resistance against German fascism. It would be particularly intolerable if the AfD were allowed to spread its inhumane propaganda at the university. LMU should be a place without racism, sexism, homo-, and transphobia; this means it should also be a place without the AfD.

The university chair is now not only considering to give space to the right, but also to take away this privilege from left activists. In place of the antiracists who stood against the AfD, a leftist university group (“Waffen der Kritik”) that also took part in the protest is now under pressure, facing possible expulsion. Such a decision would normally be made by the students through the “Konvent,” but the LMU chair now seeks to assume the authority to decide. Doing so would strip one of the last democratic rights of the only existing student committee in the university.

Instead of reviewing left groups for expulsion, the university chair should clearly denounce right-wing populist ideas and reject the AfD.

The supporters of this petition want a more democratic university. Therefore, they demand a university parliament in which all political decisions concerning the institution are made. Students should decide for themselves whether they will allow these reactionary organizations at their university.