Argentina
Human chain blocked AfD politician from attending Halle memorial event
Hans-Thomas Tillschneider tried to take part in a ceremony for the victims of the 2019 antisemitic attack on a synagogue in Halle. Protesters blocked the entrance and, after mediation, the lawmaker left the scene.
AfD state lawmaker Hans-Thomas Tillschneider tried on Wednesday to enter the grounds of the synagogue in Halle, where a memorial event was being held for the victims of the 2019 antisemitic attack, but a group of people formed a human chain at the entrance and prevented him from taking part, according to Der Spiegel, citing local police.
Police said the protest was a spontaneous gathering. Members of the assembly authority mediated between Tillschneider and the demonstrators, and the situation remained calm. After a longer discussion, the AfD politician eventually left the site.
A police spokesperson said the people in the human chain were part of a student association. Tillschneider later said he had been blocked in a hostile manner and insulted. The Jewish Student Union, JSUD, said on Facebook that it would not allow the commemoration to be taken over by right-wing extremists and argued that they had helped create the conditions for such an attack by continually shifting the boundaries of what can be said publicly.
Der Spiegel noted that AfD is classified as far-right in Saxony-Anhalt. Even so, it won the state election in September, and Tillschneider was elected on Tuesday as vice president of the new state parliament in Magdeburg.
Several events were being held in Halle to remember the victims of the attack on the synagogue, seven years after the assault. Acting minister-president Sven Schulze and his predecessor Reiner Haseloff, both from the CDU, also attended the commemoration.
On October 9, 2019, a heavily armed far-right extremist tried to enter the synagogue on Yom Kippur, the holiest day in Judaism. When he failed, he killed a 40-year-old woman outside and a 20-year-old customer at a nearby kebab shop. In 2020, the Higher Regional Court in Naumburg sentenced him to life imprisonment followed by preventive detention.
Sources
About this piece. Written by El Notero with AI assistance, from reporting published by the outlet cited above. El Notero did no original reporting on this story.
