A publicly owned hospital in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia has fired a pediatric surgeon without notice after she ran unsuccessfully for the Alternative for Germany (AfD) in a neighboring state’s local elections.
Dr. Svetlana Spirina, a senior physician in pediatric surgery at Klinikum Lippe in Detmold, appeared on the AfD ticket for Osnabrück’s city council in Lower Saxony’s Sept. 13 vote. While she did not win a seat, the hospital, owned solely by the Lippe district, then dismissed her immediately, the clinic confirmed.
Detmold and Osnabrück are about 85 kilometers (53 miles) apart.
Hospital spokeswoman Mandy Lange declined to discuss the case, according to local German news outlet NOZ.
“We will not comment on the details for privacy reasons,” Lange said. The clinic, whose motto is “From person to person,” claims pediatric surgery operations have not been interrupted. However, this cannot be independently verified. Germany’s left has long claimed a shortage of doctor and medical staff as one justification behind mass immigration. Remix News has debunked this claim, noting that many of the hospital staff are being poached and taken from poorer countries across the world. At the same time, many of the foreign medical workers lack skills, use fake certifications to gain positions, and have grossly insufficient language skills.
In many cases, native Europeans are being aggressively turned away from the medical profession and educational opportunities in favor of foreign workers.
🇸🇾🇩🇪 German politicians are spreading misleading information about Syrian doctors working in Germany.
5,000 Syrian doctors may sound like a lot, but there are 420,000 doctors in Germany. The number of Syrian doctors is approximately just enough to cover the 1 million Syrian… pic.twitter.com/fHJh9945y9
— Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) December 30, 2024According to accounts of the dispute, Spirina denied AfD membership and her candidacy in a staff meeting after a pediatrician from the Münsterland region publicized the campaign in an open letter. Campaign material then disappeared from the AfD district association’s website and social media accounts.
District chairman Florian Meyer said he deleted the posts to shield the doctor from professional consequences, while expressing dismay at her public distancing.
In a biographical text she wrote about herself, Spirina said she had been an AfD member since 2023. She left the party shortly before the election, apparently under pressure from her employer.
Spirina received 408 votes, or 6.7 percent. That was not enough for a council seat. The AfD won 8.5 percent in Osnabrück and four seats.
Across Germany, AfD members and politicians have been targeted with professional consequences, including open threats. Many experts believe this harassment campaign is designed not only to strike fear but also to limit the pool of quality candidates the AfD can recruit as politicians.
