The Federal Minister of the Interior has published a photo showing her with right-wing radicals. In the picture, which Nancy Faeser published yesterday on her Twitter account, she can be seen together with a group of people, one of whom is showing the far-right wolf salute and two others the so-called Rabia salute. The wolf salute is the hand sign of Turkish right-wing extremists. The Rabia salute is used by the Islamist Muslim Brothers as a symbol of recognition.
In the wolf salute, the middle and ring fingers are pressed onto the thumb, the index and little fingers are spread. In the Rabia salute, four fingers are raised in the air and the thumb is bent and pressed onto the palm.
During his visit to Berlin in autumn 2018, Turkish President Erdogan showed the salute from a moving car. On the street, supporters of the president reacted with the wolf salute. Erdogan has also shown the salute himself several times.
Particularly sensitive in Faeser’s case: the young people in the picture are participants in the project “The Constitutional Students”. This is intended to encourage young people to “stand up for their rights themselves and get involved – in their neighbourhood, school, a club, a party or an initiative of their choice”. In the process, schools and youth facilities are to become a “training ground for democracy”,
“In the 20th century, violent supporters of the first ultranationalist party in Turkey introduced the so-called wolf salute as a sign of recognition or political commitment. This consists of a wolf’s head imitated by hand. The picture on the left shows the ‘wolf salute’.”
Thus, the Turkish right-wing extremist gesture could be understood as “an exaltation of the Turkish people with simultaneous devaluation of other ethnicities, states and religions, but above all of the Jews, Israel and the Armenians”. This idea is derived biologically, historically, politically or territorially.
Currently, neither the salute nor the Grey Wolves are banned in Germany. Ironically, in November 2020, Faeser’s own party, the SPD, together with the Christian Democrats, the Greens and the Left, had approved a proposal calling on the old federal government under Angela Merkel to consider a ban on grey wolves. It had also introduced a bill for a ban. The procedure is still ongoing.