Neo-Nazi meeting at the Morgarten monument

A radical right-wing group met repeatedly in Oberägeri at the weekend. Ronahi Yener and Guido Suter, cantonal councillors of the SP Zug, submitted an interpellation on the subject on Saturday.

Ronahi Yener and Guido Suter want answers. Under the title "Morgarten monument – an accepted gathering place for dangerous, right-wing extremist groups?", the SP (Socialist party) members of the cantonal council (Kantonsrat) recently submitted an interpellation to the Zug Security Directorate.

This was preceded by an article in the Zuger Zeitung newspaper reporting on a planned meeting of right-wing extremist groups at the Morgarten monument. The cantonal security directorate, the municipality of Oberägeri and the Zug police were asked for a statement on the topic. "The article has shown that virtually nothing is being done about these meetings, and that they are simply tolerated," said Ronahi Yener.

The Morgarten monument in Oberägeri has repeatedly become a meeting place for right-wing extremist groups                  Photo: Stefan Kaiser/Zuger Zeitung
Ronahi Yener (SP Zug), cantonal councillor and interpellant.
 Cantonal Councillor and Interpellant Guido Suter (SP Zug)                             Photos: PD

Meetings are apparently "simply tolerated"
According to a request to the Zug police from "Zentralplus" online newspaper, eight to ten people arrived at the monument at the weekend. The police had been briefly on site to check the situation.

Ronahi Yener feels that the fact that openly professed neo-Nazis allegedly meet every year at the memorial and claim this place for themselves is "unacceptable". In addition, it is "shameful" that a historical monument is misused to spread Nazi propaganda.

According to its own information, the canton last officially took a position on the meetings at the Morgarten monument in 2007. "I have always suspected that something was going on in the background ever since, but apparently these meetings are simply tolerated," she says.

With the interpellation, the cantonal councillor and her co-interpellant Guido Suter hope that there will be some form of reaction to these meetings in the future. "Laura Dittli, who will be head of the Security Directorate from 1 January 2023, is herself from Oberägeri. I hope that she will take a stand on the issue," says Yener.

Even if the hands of the authorities are tied, they should at least inform the population about such meetings. Because:

"Personally, I would never dare to go to this place if I knew that such a group was there,"

said the cantonal councillor. And, both the security directorate and the police were aware of the repeated meetings of right-wing extremist groups in Oberägeri.