EASTORA REPORT | Frank-Walter Steinmeier has turned Germany’s fight against antisemitism into a test of political legitimacy: parties that tolerate it, he says, should not be allowed to shape governments.
“Where coalitions are negotiated and governments are formed, this must be a condition: antisemitism must not be allowed to influence government policy anywhere in Germany,” the German president said Monday at the opening of the Jewish Academy in Frankfurt.
His warning went beyond condemning hate crimes.
Steinmeier said the protection of Jewish life must never become “political bargaining material” in the struggle for power, and argued that every party bears responsibility for confronting antisemitism from its leadership down to its grassroots and supporters.
“Whoever chants ‘Death to the Jews’ on the streets or demands the annihilation of the Jewish state must find no understanding or applause in any political party,” he said.
The timing made the speech politically charged.
Coalition talks have begun in Berlin between the Left Party, the Social Democrats and the Greens, while the Left has faced accusations that some members have failed to draw a clear enough line against positions denying Israel’s right to exist. The party rejects the charge.
Steinmeier did not name any party. His message was broader: antisemitism, whether it comes from the right or the left, cannot be normalized in exchange for votes, alliances or access to power.
He also warned that Jewish institutions in Germany still require heavy police protection and that antisemitic crimes have risen sharply since Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.
At the same time, he drew a boundary around criticism of Israeli policy, saying it becomes antisemitic when it is used to deny Israel’s right to exist or to justify violence against Jews.
The setting carried its own symbolism. The new Jewish Academy is Germany’s first nationwide, non-university Jewish educational institution established since the Holocaust.
For Steinmeier, that made the message unavoidable.
Germany can debate almost anything.
Whether antisemitism is compatible with governing power, he said, should