Red Shirt Supporters in Germany
A German blog called "Schönes? Thailand" (Beautiful? Thailand), which openly supports the red shirts, recently ran a story about a Red Shirts supporters' meeting in Dortmund last weekend with an attendance of over 50 people. Special guests were Giles Ji Ungpakorn and (via telephone) Jakrapop Penkair, both in exile after being accused of lèse majesté, who held speeches about the current political situation. Due to legal reasons I cannot translate and post many parts of the speeches (instead read it yourself), but I found this part noteworthy.
Die Rothemden haben am Ende der Versammlung einen Beschluss gefasst. Sie erklärten, sich bis zum Sieg für die Demokratie einsetzen zu wollen. Falls es eine Zerschlagung der Demokratiebewegung gäbe, würden sie sich sofort versammeln und vor der thailändischen Botschaft und den Konsulaten versammeln um dagegen zu protestieren.
(The Red Shirts have come to a conclusion at the end of the meeting. They declare to stand up for democracy until victory. In case of a crackdown of the democracy movement, they would immediately assemble and protest against it in front of the Thai embassy and consulates.)
"Solidaritätsveranstaltung in Deutschland", Schönes? Thailand, March 16, 2010 - Translation by me
Sources tell me that it was initially a birthday party of a member. It was then transformed to a political event. Pictures of the event (and a meeting of a few in front of the Royal Thai Embassy in Berlin) can be seen here.
It is difficult to conduct the political leaning of Thais in Germany, let alone the demographics of all Thai people in this country. By my own estimations and impressions (and by no way it is meant degrading), most Thais in Germany are female, above 35 years old and married to a German male. Also, the origin of most is the Isaan region, the North-Eastern.
In my opinion, like in Thailand itself, there has been a growing interest for Thai politics by the Thai expats here in Germany in recent times. The numbers are nowhere near their American counterparts (more about this in another blog post), but certainly we can expect more political activism by Thai expats.