Höcke’s comments “reveal a blatant and candid picture of his thought world”, argued Wilfried Oelers, leader of the centre-right Christian Democratic Union’s parliamentary group for people with disabilities.
Corinna Rüffer, the Green party’s representative for disabled people, said she was not surprised by Hocke’s remarks. “The AfD sees disability as a disease. Excluding disabled people from schools leads to exclusion from society.”
Parliamentary State Minister Jens Brandenburg called Hocke’s comments “completely inhumane”, adding that “Mr Hocke is known for making references to the Nazis.”
“All children have the right to equal participation and expanded opportunities through inclusive education,” Brandenburg said.
Jürgen Düsel, the federal commissioner for people with disabilities, noted that Germany bears a special responsibility because of the systematic genocide of disabled people by the Nazis: “That’s why it’s important for me to make it clear that inclusion is not an ideological project, but about achieving fundamental rights, human dignity, the development of the personality and equality before the law.”
“I myself first went to a special needs school and then to a mainstream school. This change was a blessing for me personally,” explains Dussel, who is severely visually impaired. “Inclusion is in no way a burden for non-disabled students, but rather an enrichment, as they come into contact with people with disabilities at an early stage in their lives and do not develop prejudices in the first place.”