In 2022, Olaf Scholz, the German Chancellor at the time, called for a “turning point” after the beginning of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine. What he meant, most of all, was one thing: the establishment of a 100 million EUR special fund for the German Bundeswehr and its anchoring within the German constitution. What has happened, however, in Germany and in Europe since then, is not only a new militarisation of politics and discourse – most recently fueled by the demand of the US President for an increase of the NATO defence spending to 5% of the national budget by all member states – but also a turning point of a completely different kind.

The turning point is the consent of an exhausted European society to a rapid backlash. For quite some time, we have persuaded ourselves of  the harmlessness through the use of terms like normalisation and, in doing so, failed to see what was coming: antisemitism, racism, misogyny and queerphobia, the obedience to authority, and a contempt for democracy have not only been normalised, they have now become an expression of the will of the people.

The Afd in Germany, the Rassemblement National in France, the Fratelli d’Italia in Italy, the Partij voor de Vrijheid in the Netherlands, Prawo i Sprawiedliwość in Poland, Chega! in Portugal, Vox in Spain, Fidesz in Hungary – they all stand within the European political party system for a turning point that has long-since taken place. In their respective countries and in the European parliament, they live out their fantasies of homogeneity and have long-since become a democratic depiction of the vision of a new anti-European Europe. They are all part of a backlash, a rapid societal development that undoes the hard-earned societal progress. While just a few years ago, large parts of the European civic society seemed to be in agreement  that the future of our European society must be shaped by plurality, diversity, inclusivity, by participation and liberalism, this vision has fallen victim to the current turning point. In doing so, the resulting societal polarisation is less a struggle between the left and the right, but rather a detailed erosion of solidarity among a wide variety of societal players.

Remembrance culture and the politics of remembrance are inseparably connected to this turning point of societal backlash. Societal learning is intended to be made possible by the remembrance of historical failures of humanity, of destruction, war, and suffering. This is always done with the clear goal of organising the present in such a manner that history cannot repeat itself. Remembrance should thus be a method of practicing humanity, justice, and solidarity. This is the societal function of remembrance, at least when one takes the oft-repeated slogan “never again” literally. The fact that reality is increasingly approaching a point of “again and again” raises the question of what actually remains from this promise made in recent years. This is also a question of survival for groups that are discriminated against in society.

What results from this crisis of trust in remembrance culture, which is also a crisis of remembrance culture itself to prevent the repetition of violent history: the turning point of the societal backlash must follow a new remembrance culture of resistant civil society. A remembrance culture that will be the expression of a will to shape, even if it means opposing an increasingly authoritarian political sphere, if necessary. Humanity, justice, solidarity: these are not the goals of societal consensus; instead, they are the cornerstones of a new resistance. We are organising this resistance of plural democracy also with the tools of remembrance culture.

On March 14, 2025, the Coalition for Pluralistic Public Discourse will dedicate itself to the European turning point of the backlash and discuss new paths for a remembrance culture of resistance in Studio Я.

A cooperation of the Coalition for Pluralistic Public Discourse (CPPD) with the Maxim Gorki Theater.

Participants: Max Czollek, Cátia Severino, Noa. K. Ha, Jo Frank, Johanna Korneli and others.