The intellectual level of our ‘nationalistic attachment’ is best demonstrated by the conference organised on this occasion by Arvydas Juozaitis. Its organisers could think of nothing but invite German radicals who have taken a clear stance against the EU, that is to say, those, who are in favour of a strong Germany with its sole authority to rule.
‘Deutschland über alles’
The organisers will, of course, say that the AfD represents an influential force throughout Germany and that it is necessary to engage with everyone. All of this, in fact, is nothing more than a pure demagogy. If this force does happen to become Germany’s ruling party, there will no longer be any European Union. Instead, there will be a Union stretching from Berlin down to Moscow. In the meantime, we will fall victim to yet some new Molotov-Ribbentrop-type pacts. However, let us hope that this force will never, if at all, be in power all by itself.
Although the AfD has never once mentioned that it treats the occupation of Crimea as Crimea’s legitimate accession to the Russian Federation, many of the AfD’s members have conveyed the message as their personal opinion. One of the keynote speakers of the conference, who will talk about the economic relations between Lithuanian and Germany, has highlighted on a number of occasions that Crimea’s secession from Ukraine was in full conformity with international law, hence it belongs, quite legitimately, to the Russian Federation. Incidentally, however, the AfD is unanimously against the sanctions imposed on Russia. During a visit to Lithuania, one German parliamentarian tried to openly convince us that we should not listen solely to Ukraine and that we should hear the arguments by Russia (the aggressor!). This tune seems familiar, doesn’t it?
True enough, the visit and the conference will not change a thing. Or maybe quite the opposite – it will bring to light all those ‘useful idiots’ flocking around the former attaché in the Kaliningrad Region, who has apparently ‘broadened his horizons’ over there. In fact, I am a bit embarrassed by Lithuania’s politics, which will be, albeit marginally, tarnished by all of this. The same can be said about Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania hosting an event of this kind.
This conference, organised by Juozaitis, is, so to say, very timely, given that the Russian Federation has recently launched its open aggression against the Ukrainian freedom of maritime traffic based on its right to the territorial waters off the coast of the Crimean Peninsula, which, in fact, does not even belong to the Russian Federation under international law. All of this serves the purpose of getting at least some minor recognition by force. At the same time, we witness the emergence of marginal activists, whose cooperation with the Russian special services is an open secret, and who are creating an ‘Alternative for Lithuania’ in support of the AfD that is fighting for us. Impudence knows no limits, as they proudly claim to have drawn inspiration from the Signatories to the Act of Independence, who appear in the reports on national security threats by the State Security Department.
The reason behind my writing is to share mu opinion in that we must not discredit the ideas of a nation state by sympathising with radical German nationalists, who got back to praising the power of force and occupation. The best thing we could do would be to simply ignore them and their conference. The same could be done with their presidential candidate.