Philip Oltermann: German politicians' support for refugees prompts death threats
Several German
politicians who have publicly stood up for refugees have received death threats
since what police are treating as the alleged politically motivated murder of
one of Angela Merkel’s party allies. An email sent to
politicians and media organisations across the country on Tuesday night warned
that the alleged murder of the Christian Democratic Union politician Walter Lübcke
allegedly
by a man linked to the far right, was the first in a line of “upcoming
purges” and called for terror attacks on left-leaning politicians, refugees and
Jews in Germany.
The mayors of the city
of Cologne and the western town of Altena, who have both been victims of knife
attacks because of their pro-refugee stances, were singled out in the letter. Cologne’s mayor,
Henriette Reker, narrowly escaped death in 2015 when she was attacked with a
hunting knife by a rightwing extremist who said he had wanted to send a signal
against the government’s course on the refugee question. Altena’s mayor,
Andreas Hollstein, was stabbed in the neck in 2017 by a man who had loudly
criticised his liberal asylum policy in the North Rhine-Westphalia town. Both confirmed they had
received death threats this week... read more:
