Participants in the Basel Carnival want to take stronger action against racism this year

If you watch the Basel Carnival, every year you are confronted with sensitive topics, which are satirically packaged by the participants – because during Carnival there is freedom from fools. The Basel Carnival Committee also made it clear to the SRF: satire is desirable.

What is not wanted, however, are racist derailments. The organizing committee of the Basel Fasnacht has made this particularly clear this year by adapting its guidelines for the rules of conduct during Fasnacht and recently publishing the new version on its website.

This guide describes, among other things, how the committee deals with controversial issues. Now a point has been added in the area of ​​discrimination:

The SRF asked the committee why it was adding this paragraph now: The Basel Carnival is “a topic carnival” that critically questions current social trends, says Daniel Hanimann, head of communications at the Basel Carnival Committee. Therefore, now is the time to take a stand on this issue.

The guide describes even more specifically how the Basel Carnival deals with topics of a (socio)political and critical nature: “Anyone who dares to tackle a controversial topic must – as with all other topics – implement this during Carnival.” This means that it must be handled “humorously” – “all forms of creativity” are welcome “as long as they respect the rules of conduct”.

There is no subject that should not be discussed, but the committee draws the line when it comes to religious acts: ‘Religious feelings may not be hurt.’

Despite the established rules of conduct, the committee “does not see itself as a censorship authority”. They ‘couldn’t order’ but would only ‘recommend’.

The committee can still exert an indirect influence by, to some extent, cutting off the flow of money to some carnival groups. “We give bad marks for racist and discriminatory issues and that means that the clique in question receives fewer subsidies, therefore less money,” Hanimann explains.

However, which cliques have already suffered from this ‘punishment’ and how often it has been applied remains secret.

Discussions about what is allowed and what is not are not uncommon during carnival. In recent years there have been repeated cases in which cliques have been accused of racism.

In 2019, the Old Guard of the traditional ‘Alti Stainlemer’ clique attracted attention with racist verses on their lanterns. One of the verses went something like this:

In addition, the drum major wore a burka costume and the drummers were dressed as scowling foreigners.

Last year there was also a very controversial Zeedel in circulation: a piece of paper with verses on it that were intended to express the topic chosen by the cliques. This Zedel contained the N-word. Even in retrospect, the author of the verse saw no problem with the use of the word.

The Basel Carnival Committee commented on this incident in ’20 Minutes’ and found similar words to those in the rules of conduct: “There is in principle no censorship at Carnival,” a spokesperson said. Nevertheless, the laws on anti-Semitism and racism would still apply. Even if this is not enough to justify criminal liability, the responsible clique may suffer financial damage as a result of poor judgment.

In addition, two Guggenmusik groups are criticized: “Negro-Rhygass” and “Mohrekopf”. For decades, the Guggenmusik logo “Negro-Rhygass” was a black figure with plump lips, large earrings and a bone in his hair. In 2018, the logo and name were suddenly widely discussed and criticized – in 2022 the group changed its logo, but the name remains.

The “Mohrekopf” Guggen music received increasing criticism because of its name. However, the name has not changed to this day.