In North Rhine-Westphalia, the parties that claim to be the protectors of democracy—including the centrist CDU, the left-wing SPD, and the Greens—have ousted a democratically elected deputy mayor from office, simply because she represents the AfD.

Sabine Reinknecht was elected to this post in Bad Salzuflen exactly two weeks ago. This election was reversed today, on November 19th, following a city council meeting that saw the establishment groups team up against Germany’s rising opposition.  “Democracy,” she said after the council vote, “was buried here today.”

The AfD group in Bad Salzuflen also criticised the decision as “a fatal signal—for our city, for the respect of voters, and for the political culture as a whole.”

Asked before this meeting what she had done wrong, Reinknecht told Junge Freiheit: “Absolutely nothing.” Indeed, it is worth noting that while phoney excuses have been made, the municipal code says that no reason is needed for a motion to remove a deputy mayor. Reinknecht said:

I was elected in a secret ballot with 16 votes—significantly more votes than the AfD has seats on the council. This shows that my work and my conduct are valued across party lines.

The fact that they now want to reverse this result has nothing to do with my behavior, but solely with partisan tactics. It seems that for some, democracy only works when the result matches their expectations.

The establishment parties came up with various ‘justifications’ for removing Reinknecht from office, first of all claiming that she might frighten off tourists, and later claiming that she had made “racist” comments on social media.

Local paper Lippische Wochenzeitung also reported on Monday that council members had “expressed their desire to set the number of deputy mayors at two, thereby sending a signal for efficient and economical structures in the city administration.” Conveniently, this method of improving efficiency presented itself just as an AfD politician won the third deputy mayor seat.

LW added that those who removed Reinknecht wanted to send “a clear signal for democracy, diversity, respect and responsible political cooperation with this joint step.” They have, in fact, done the opposite.

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