AfD faces ridicule for erasing Islam survey after result doesn’t go its way
The right-wing populist Alternative for Germany party deleted a survey that it had posted on social media on Tuesday, after participants gave a radically different answer to the one they wanted.
The survey by the Berlin wing of the party asked Twitter users to answer with yes or no the question of whether Islam belongs to Germany. Screenshots show that 83 percent of the 20,000 participants answered that yes, Islam does belong to Germany.
One of the central slogans of the far-right party is that “Islam gehört nicht zu Deutschland” (Islam doesn’t belong to Germany).
By Tuesday afternoon, the survey had been deleted from the AfD Berlin account.
“Now the AfD Berlin has deleted its survey, accidentally of course! What idiocy!” the head of the Green Party in Berlin, Werner Graf, wrote of Twitter.
“Luckily I took a photo so that their hard work wouldn't be for nothing,” he added.
Jetzt hat die @AfDBerlin doch aus Versehen ihre Umfrage gelöscht! Sowas dummes! Zum Glück hab ich mal ein Foto gemacht! Die mühevolle Arbeit soll ja nicht umsonst gewesen sein. #Islam #Heimat pic.twitter.com/sO4TQIKU4B
— Werner Graf (@grafwer) March 20, 2018
“This case shows that the party that claims to speak in the name of the people hides away when they notice that they don‘t represent popular opinion at all,” Graf later told DPA.
Ronald Gläser, spokesman for the AfD in Berlin, said that “deleted is deleted - it can’t be published again. I wouldn’t have done it - the deletion wasn’t necessary.”
The result of the survey is likely due to the Twitter account of a left-leaning comedy show encouraging its followers to take part.
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The survey by the Berlin wing of the party asked Twitter users to answer with yes or no the question of whether Islam belongs to Germany. Screenshots show that 83 percent of the 20,000 participants answered that yes, Islam does belong to Germany.
One of the central slogans of the far-right party is that “Islam gehört nicht zu Deutschland” (Islam doesn’t belong to Germany).
By Tuesday afternoon, the survey had been deleted from the AfD Berlin account.
“Now the AfD Berlin has deleted its survey, accidentally of course! What idiocy!” the head of the Green Party in Berlin, Werner Graf, wrote of Twitter.
“Luckily I took a photo so that their hard work wouldn't be for nothing,” he added.
Jetzt hat die @AfDBerlin doch aus Versehen ihre Umfrage gelöscht! Sowas dummes! Zum Glück hab ich mal ein Foto gemacht! Die mühevolle Arbeit soll ja nicht umsonst gewesen sein. #Islam #Heimat pic.twitter.com/sO4TQIKU4B
— Werner Graf (@grafwer) March 20, 2018
“This case shows that the party that claims to speak in the name of the people hides away when they notice that they don‘t represent popular opinion at all,” Graf later told DPA.
Ronald Gläser, spokesman for the AfD in Berlin, said that “deleted is deleted - it can’t be published again. I wouldn’t have done it - the deletion wasn’t necessary.”
The result of the survey is likely due to the Twitter account of a left-leaning comedy show encouraging its followers to take part.
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