While understanding reason of outrage there is no excuse or explanation for Nazi slogans and attacks on people who “look different.” – Merkel
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Angela Merkel said she understands the “outrage” that led people to demonstrate in the eastern German city of Chemnitz but insisted there is no “excuse or explanation” for Nazi slogans and attacks on people who “look different.”
“We won’t accept that, surreptitiously, entire groups — Jews, Muslims — be excluded from society,” the German chancellor told the Bundestag on Wednesday, responding to accusations from the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) that the government is endangering the country’s security in failing to address concerns over its migration policy. “They belong to our society, just like Christians and atheists.”
“I can understand anyone who is outraged when it emerges after a crime that the perpetrator has a criminal record or is under legal obligation to leave the country,” Merkel said, addressing the political fallout following violent far-right demonstrations in Chemnitz prompted by the fatal stabbing of a German, allegedly by two immigrants.
She added that the incident has “affected her” and that the perpetrators would be punished according to the law. But, she insisted, there is no excuse for “inhuman” demonstrations. “We are resolutely against this.”
Also speaking in parliament, AfD leader Alexander Gauland claimed “there was no man hunt in Chemnitz,” and said allegations his party cooperated with the extreme right groups behind the violent protests are “an attempt to criminalize the opposition” and establish a “people’s front against the AfD.”
