Admin I Monday, May 27, 2024
MUNICH – Organizers of the world-famous Oktoberfest in Munich will not allow the song “L’Amour Toujours” to be played at the beer festival after a series of incidents where crowds in Germany shouted far-right chants to the melody of the decades-old pop tune.
“We want to ban it and I will ban it,” Oktoberfest boss Clemens Baumgärtner told dpa on Monday with regard to the song by Italian DJ Gigi D’Agostino.
“There’s no place for all that right-wing bullshit at the Wiesn,” he said, referring to the Theresienweise fairgrounds where Oktoberfest is held each year
The song itself does not contain any right-wing extremist content, but it has taken on “very clear right-wing extremist connotations” in Germany in recent months, said Baumgärtner.
Several ugly incidents involving racist chants to the song have caused outrage in Germany after videos went viral online. Police in several German states have also launched criminal investigations on suspicion of incitement to hatred.
A video of revellers outside a pub on the chic, exclusive North Sea island of Sylt shouting “Foreigners out – Germany for Germans” to the tune of the party hit has prompted condemnation and nationwide headlines.
Baumgärtner said Oktoberfest’s operating conditions allowed them to ban particular slogans or content from the festival, which he described as a “light-hearted and beautiful” that welcomes many foreign guests.
Right-wing slogans have been prevented in the past and should not occur in the future either, Baumgärtner said: “The Wiesn is apolitical.”
Oktoberfest is particularly well-known internationally for the huge volume of beer consumed by revellers at the festival, with many of them donning traditional Bavarian garb for the event.
