German police have been investigating young people singing a song that proclaims “Deutschland den Deutschen, Ausländer Raus” or roughly translated, "Germany for the Germans, foreigners out."
The trend has made it to mainstream social media, with the latest instance coming from an exclusive nightclub on the German holiday island Sylt, Breitbart reports. The group of young adults in the video can be seen smiling with their hands in the air and jumping up and down as they repeat the lyrics.
According to Breitbart, young people in Germany have been increasingly drifting right-wing, and recent polling has shown the anti-immigration, pro-border Alternative for Germany (AfD) party is now the most popular among 14 to 29-year-olds, support having doubled in 2 years.
Politicians and authorities in Germany have expressed outrage over previous instances of the song, which consists of transposed lyrics over the popular electronic dance music (EDM) hit L'amour toujours, by DJ Gigi D'Agostino, being sung by crowds of youth and posted online. German broadcaster Bayerischer Rundfunk stated that clips of it being sung have been released “again and again” at "discos and festivals all over Germany."
The recent viral video, however, sparked an investigation from Germany's federal security police, which usually deals with terrorism, international crime and gang activity. They have now set their sights on the clubbers in the video.
“Nazi yelling… They should be ashamed of themselves! Criminal investigations must now follow," said Green Party state government Integration Minister Aminata Touré.
Ferda Ataman, who was appointed Federal Commissioner for Anti-Discrimination in 2022, decried the song as "pure racism, which is increasingly ingraining itself in all social groups and age groups and is being openly expressed" and said that it showed "people are being discriminated against and degraded."
Speaking on the German right's growing popularity amongst young people, Professor Klaus Hurrelmann said: “We can speak of a clear shift to the right among the young population… While the parties of the [coalition] government continue to fall in popularity, the AfD is particularly popular.”
"We have a crumbling optimism about the future among the younger generation." he continued. "The feeling of mental overload is very high, the fear of the spread of wars, of economic losses, of debt."
