Sexual education - Public Prosecutor is examining AfD's Kita-Flyer
Is the claim that children are at risk of sexualization in daycare centers and that the queer scene is responsible for it, hate speech? This question needs to be answered in Osnabrück. The city administration submitted a corresponding flyer from the AfD for review to the prosecutor's office, said a spokesperson for the commune. However, the indictment file was not yet available, said a spokeswoman. Previously, the "Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung" had reported.
The AfD had distributed a flyer in an Osnabrück neighborhood, in which it states among other things: "We are experiencing the legalization of pedophilia." In another place it says: "Sexualization is a state doctrine: According to official standards of the Federal Government and WHO, kindergarten children should learn to masturbate and babies should be referred to as sexual beings." From more and more kindergartens, disturbing sexual concepts were being leaked out, in the institutions, "Trans-Propaganda for the Little Ones" was being made.
AfD refers to a case in Hannover
The flyer was issued by the AfD state association, said Osnabrück district chairman Florian Meyer: "We might not have phrased it quite so over-the-top, but we stand behind the content." Meyer referred to the case of an AWO kindergarten in Hannover, which had announced the establishment of a "body exploration room" in a parent letter last year. The Youth Welfare Office had prevented this and ordered a revision of the child protection concept.
In Osnabrück, the AfD is not yet aware of such a case, Meyer conceded. "We want to draw attention to this with the flyer that there are people in the daycare sector who want this." The AfD wants to make people aware of this so that such concepts are not even implemented. Hannover is not far away. He considers exaggerations on a political leaflet to be legitimate.
Charge of hate speech
SPD city councilor Robert Alferink described the flyer as hate speech: "For me, this flyer is another proof that the AfD appeals to the basest instincts in people and obviously doesn't hold back from lying and grotesque untruths to unsettle parents and destroy trust in – here communal – institutions," said the communal politician to the NOZ.
He finds it particularly bad that the flyer equates stigmatizable pedophilia with members of the queer scene. By doing so, an entire group is defamed, explained Alferink in the newspaper. Queer people are those who do not identify as heterosexual or do not conform to the traditional role model of man and woman or other societal norms around gender and sexuality.
The flyer had already been distributed in Gifhorn the previous year, said Meyer. The prosecutor's office Hildesheim had opened an investigation, but had passed the file on to the prosecutor's office Hannover. There, the file was not yet available, said a spokeswoman.
- The controversy over allegations of sexualization in daycare centers and its connection to the queer scene is currently under investigation in the city of Osnabrück.
- Florian Meyer, the district chairman of the AfD in Lower Saxony, defended the party's flyer that sparked the controversy, stating that while the language might be extreme, the content is something they stand behind.
- The flyer distributed by the AfD mentions a case in Hannover, where an AWO kindergarten had planned to establish a "body exploration room," which was later prevented by the Youth Welfare Office.
- SPD city councilor Robert Alferink of Osnabrück labeled the AfD's flyer as hate speech, arguing that it stigmatizes the queer community and appeals to people's basest instincts.
- The prosecutor's office in Hildesheim investigated a similar case where the flyer was distributed in Gifhorn the previous year, but the file was later transferred to the prosecutor's office in Hannover, which has not yet made it available.
- Kindergartens in both Osnabrück and Hannover have been under scrutiny due to leaks of concerning sexual concepts, leading to public concern and political discourse about the role of sexual education in early childhood education.
