– The International Munich Peace Conference responds to Andrea Drescher’s interview with Dr. Ingrid Pfanzelt in NachDenkSeiten on May 14, 2023. Unfortunately, this counterstatement was not published by NachDenkSeiten.
Munich Peace Conference 2023
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Dr. Ingrid Pfanzelt had been working as an IPPNW delegate in the sponsoring group since 2021 and left at her own request on November 17, 2022. Thanks to the work of Dr. Josef Raab as delegate and the support of the IPPNW Federal Executive Committee, IPPNW’s membership in the sponsoring group of the Peace Conference remains secure and is beyond question.
“Civil society and the supposed turning point” was the theme of the opening event of the International Munich Peace Conference on February 17, 2023. Ver.di, the Munich Migration Advisory Board, and Misereor had agreed to participate in this exchange with civil society groups from the environmental, migration, church, and trade union movements.
Dr. Pfanzelt requested that Mr. Melchior Ibing be invited as a panelist at the 2023 conference. Mr. Ibing is the spokesperson for “München-steht-auf” (Munich Stands Up) and has been organizing the Wednesday demonstrations in Munich since shortly after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. According to reports by various local journalists and observers (see, for example, the research by firm, the Munich-based specialist information center for right-wing extremism) and according to Dr. Pfanzelt herself, Mr. Ibing has in the past invited AfD officials to speak at “München-steht-auf” demonstrations. Since Mr. Ibing refused to distance himself from the AfD in discussions with the Anti-Siko Alliance (the alliance of the “traditional peace movement that organizes the annual demonstration against the Munich Security Conference”), he was not accepted into the alliance.
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