NEC News
Climate Crisis as a Weak Point of Authoritarianism
A journalistic report by taz features several researchers discussing strategies against the authoritarian backlash at universities. The occasion is the TU Berlin leadership's attempt to cancel talks at an antifascist student congress — reportedly under pressure from the AfD — as well as the "Science against Fascism" week and researchers' participation in the protests against the AfD party conference on July 4 and 5 in Erfurt.
Alongside Andreas Fischer-Lescano, María do Mar Castro Varela, and Robin Celikates, Matthias Schmelzer, professor of socio-ecological transformation at Europa-Universität Flensburg, also comments. He sees the climate crisis as a possible point of vulnerability for authoritarianism: "The AfD denies human-caused climate change and wants to reverse the energy transition." In the piece, Schmelzer argues for a stable and socially just climate policy as part of democratic resilience.