2016年考研英语阅读材料:German politics

　　THE march on January 19th in Dresden by Pegida, or “Patriotic Europeans against the Islamisation of the Occident”, would have been its 13th. But it was cancelled because the police had “concrete” information of plans to assassinate its organiser, Lutz Bachmann. On January 21st Mr Bachmann was exposed in German tabloids for posing as Hitler on his Facebook page. He called it a joke, but later resigned his position. Pegida plans to resume its marches next week.

　　Among its followers, despite Mr Bachmann's antics, neo-Nazis are a small minority. The typical marcher is a middle-aged, middle-class Saxon man who, says Hans Vorl?nder at the Technical University of Dresden, is alienated from politics and the liberal media, and yearns for a homogenous fatherland. The marches may have “passed the peak”, adds Dieter Rucht at the Berlin Social Science Centre. Yet there will be political fallout. Nine-tenths of Pegida supporters back the Alternative for Germany (AfD), founded only in 2013 and represented in three eastern state parliaments.

　　The AfD began with an anti-euro message. Some leaders, such as Hans- Olaf Henkel, from Hamburg, want to keep it that way. But, especially in the east, the party has used populist innuendo against asylum-seekers, immigrants and homosexuals. Party elders like Alexander Gauland, in Brandenburg, openly flirt with Pegida. This is straining the AfD, which has three leaders. Bernd Lucke, an economics professor, favours an anti-euro message; Frauke Petry, a businesswoman from Saxony, and Konrad Adam, a former journalist, sympathise with Pegida. Mr Lucke wants to lead alone, but Ms Petry and Mr Adam have resisted him. In a #promise, Mr Lucke will take over as boss only next December.

　　German democracy is responding without hysteria. Marchers against Pegida have recently far outnumbered those for it. The centre-left Social Democrats and Greens refuse to debate with Pegida, and Chancellor Angela Merkel, leader of the centre-right Christian Democrats, has condemned it. Others are open to dialogue. One Christian Democrat, Jens Spahn, even joined a televised debate with Kathrin Oertel, one of Pegida's organisers.

　　That was a big step for a group that had previously refused to talk to the media. Its marchers chant “Lügenpresse” (“lying press”), a term once used by the Nazis. Yet on the very day of the cancelled march, Pegida held its first-ever press conference. In the public glare, its leaders tone down their language. When confronted, their counter-arguments seem weak. Asked why Saxons should worry about Islam when only 1% of Saxony's population is Muslim, Ms Oertel said some Germans march for the rainforest though Germany has none.

　　The gradual conflation of the AfD and Pegida is a new and worrying phenomenon. There must never be a legitimate party to the right of the CSU, the Christian Democrats' Bavarian sister party, said Franz Josef Strauss, a longtime leader of Bavaria, with Germany's Nazi past in mind. Such a party has now arrived, and could enter the Bundestag in 2017.

　　参考译文:

　　1月19日，在德累斯顿爆发了一场由Pegida(或者称作“爱国欧洲人反对西方的伊斯兰化”)发起的游行。本来这次游行应该在13号举行，但是由于警方获知了刺杀该运动领袖卢茨巴赫曼行动的“详细”信息而被取消。1月21日，巴赫曼因为在“脸书”(Facebook)上传其模仿希特勒的照片而被德国小报争相报道。他声称这只是一个玩笑，但是随后他宣布辞职。Pegida计划下周恢复游行。

　　在该运动众多的追随者中，除了巴赫曼这种滑稽行为的人，新纳粹仍是少数。据来自德尔德累斯顿技术大学的汉斯?福尔兰德尔讲，其中有一位的游行示威者是较为典型，他是一个来自于萨克森州的中年中产阶级男性，他对政治和自由媒体漠不关心，却呼唤一个同文同种的父国。柏林社会科学研究中心的Dieter Rucht说到，这支游行队伍可能已经“越过底线”。也许会带来某些政治后果。 Pegida运动中有十分之九的支持者拥护德国新选项党(AfD)，该党于2013年刚刚成立，享有东部三个州的议会席位。

　　德国新选项党的兴起缘于对欧元的反对。一些领导人，包括来自汉堡的汉斯奥拉夫汉高希望继续使用欧元。但是，尤其在德国东部地区，该党利用民粹主义影射政治避难者、移民以及同性恋群体。该党的前辈――勃兰登堡的Alexander Gauland公然和Pegida“秀恩爱”。这使得新选项党内部更加紧张。该党有三个领导，经济学教授Bernd Lucke反对使用欧元，来自萨克森州的商人Frauke Petry以及之前是记者同样支持Pegida的Konrad Adam。Lucke希望能够独自领导新选项党，但是一直受到Petry和Adam的牵制。折中之后，Bernd Lucke只能于明年12月份接任领袖一职。

　　德国的民主制度对于这件事情的回应十分克制。如今反对Pegida的游行数量已经远远超出支持者的游行。中左的社会民主党和绿党拒绝与Pegida对话，而中右派基督教民主党领袖――总理默克尔却谴责该运动。其他人则保持开放的态度。Jens Spahn，这位基督教民主党人士甚至参加了一个与Pegida组织者之一―Kathrin Oertel对话的电视栏目。

　　这个举动为那些拒绝在媒体上发表观点的党派迈出了一大步。其游行者高呼曾经为纳粹使用过的“Lügenpresse”(“大话新闻”)。然而，就在取消游行的那一天，Pegida举行了首次新闻发布会。万众瞩目下，他们的领导人故意让自己的语气缓和。但在面对质疑时，他们的反驳又显得无力。当被问及他们为什么要在萨克森州仅有1%的人口是穆斯林的情况要担心伊斯兰教时，Oertel说尽管德国没有热带雨林，但仍有德国人为保护热带雨林而游行。

　　德国新选项党和Pegida日益要好着实是一个令人担忧的新问题。巴伐利亚州的长期领导者Franz Josef Strauss对纳粹始终耿耿于怀，他认为，基社盟作为巴伐利亚的执政党，绝不会再有第二个政党取得像基社盟姐妹党―基督教民主党的地位，尤其该党还有纳粹倾向。但是他担心的事情似乎已经到来，新选项党有可能在2017年进入联邦议院。