Nazi Germany

A small town in eastern Germany has banned the installation of new 'stumbling blocks' — brass memorial plaques set into pavements marking the last known homes or workplaces of Jews and other Nazi victims. The decision has drawn widespread outrage across Germany, with critics calling it a troubling signal about attitudes toward Holocaust remembrance in parts of the former East Germany.

A widely shared German-language commentary argues that Heidenau is another telling statement by the Union about itself rather than about the AfD or the state of democracy. The author criticises the party for repeating for years the mantra that Nazis must be confronted 'on substance' instead of being banned, questioning what that record reveals about the centre-right's own stance on extremism.