You're mistaken. There's no censoring going on at all. Höcke is free to say whatever he wants in public. He even gets more publicity and reach than most people. However, freedom of speech doesn't mean that statements are without consequence. He already collected a warning for voicing extreme right tendencies earlier (before the AFD even existed) and well, now there's consequences. He's a history teacher and fringe right wing people are just the kind of history teachers that are unfit for the job. (fringe left-wing nutcases as well).

You are wrong. Censoring [1] is exactly what I said, "the purpose of suppressing parts deemed objectionable on moral, political, military, or other grounds". He is being threatened to lose his job, this is suppression. You don't have to agree with him but one should be careful with 'fringe right wing' claims and who is or is not fit for a job. [1] http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/censoring

> You are wrong.

Just because you have a different opinion does not make yours right nor does it make mine wrong. I'll reiterate for you why I don't see any censorship here.

Bernd Höcke is "verbeamteter" Teacher. Beamte in germany are a special kind of state employees that get many benefits (1) but in return give up some liberties (2) and as part of their oath of office they commit themselves to a neutral political view in public and a very strict adherence to the constitution. All kind of extreme political opinion voiced in public are off limits for them - left or right. It's a contract that Bernd Höcke willingly and freely entered without coercion. He violated that rule in 2006 and was warned. He now violated it again. He basically violated his employment contract and for that he's terminated. He's still free to voice his opinion. No censorship here.

(1) can't be fired unless they commit a grave offense, get their health insurance and pension funded by the government etc. (2) also the right to strike, etc

sorry, he leads a party that openly called for shooting children at the border. He's fringe (or I hope so, because if he isn't, I need to emigrate)

> he leads a party that openly called for shooting children at the border.

My understanding is that

1) he is not leading the party, he is one of the speakers for the party in the local (state) assembly. And I understand he is actually repeatedly clashing with the actual AfD leadership.

2) any comments about "shooting children" or even generally changing rules of engagement regarding firearms are not, as far as I know, an AfD party position, as the party leader responds in [0]

3) I understood the comments about using firearms were for a context where authorities are under a violent attack when performing their duties. Specifically, did they mention children? I didn't think so, but I could be mistaken.

I don't need to like what the "fringe" says, but I wouldn't like to make it bigger than it is. Because precisely this kind of exaggeration is what is undermining the credibility of legitimate criticism of AfD (the most devastating kind being, "hey, what would you really do instead?" because that is a question that is very hard to answer.) Its supporters see the opponents as just twisting the truth.

(I'm not experiencing this in Germany, but there are very similar discussions going on here in the Nordic countries: enormous straw men constructions are built all the time around criticism of immigration policies, and people are really quite fed up with that. If you keep repeating to people that they are racists, they may eventually start to believe you. In Sweden, the political consensus to "exclude the extreme right fringe from politics" seems to be resulting in the "extreme right fringe" now having the second largest electoral support of all parties [1], and continuing to grow. Once they go near 50 % it's going to be hard to talk about "fringe".)

[0] http://www.dw.com/en/german-right-leaning-afd-leader-calls-f... [1] http://www.aftonbladet.se/nyheter/article22117739.ab

> Specifically, did they mention children? I didn't think so, but I could be mistaken.

you are mistaken.

can you translate this phrase? google translate produces "life-affirming African propagation type", which doesn't have any clear meaning...

The intended and implied meaning "the African race has more sex and reproduces faster"

HN doesn't disappoint ;-) knew already at writing time that this will deplete karma. (Nevermind, I have enough :-)