German anti-migrant party prompts anger over xenophobia towards footballer
Germany's main anti-immigrant party triggered outrage on Sunday when its vice-chairman said Germans would not want football star Jerome Boateng as their neighbor.
Bayern Munich defender Boateng, born in Berlin to a Ghanaian father and German mother, is a stalwart of Germany's national soccer team and is likely to play for his country in next month's European Championship in France.
"People find him good as a football player but they don't want a Boateng as their neighbou," Alexander Gauland, vice-chair of Alternative for Germany (AfD), told the Sunday edition of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper.
Gauland later said he was simply relaying the opinion of some Germans and not expressing his own view. The remarks triggered fury on social media and criticism from across the German political spectrum.
Some supporters in the Augsburg stadium where Germany played Slovakia on Sunday night displayed banners supporting the 27-year old, with one saying: "Jerome, move in next to us!"
Boateng, who picked up his 58th cap on Sunday and helped Germany win the World Cup in 2014, told German TV channel ARD after the match: "I can only smile about it. It's sad that something like this can still happen today. I believe there were enough positive answers today in the stadium. I saw some banners."
Midfielder Sami Khedira, who captained Germany on Sunday and has a Tunisian father, described Gauland's words as "outrageous." Before the match, hundreds expressed their solidarity with Boateng on micro-blogging site Twitter.
"If you want to win titles for Germany, you need neighbors like him," tweeted Boateng's fellow German international player Benedikt Howedes. Using a Twitter hashtag that translates as "my neighbor Boateng," user Andreas Mayer tweeted: "There's a free flat in our building, but not for Mr Gauland."
AfD party co-chairwoman Frauke Petry apologized to Boateng in comments to the Bild newspaper. In comments emailed to Reuters, AfD co-chair Joerg Meuthen said he would be happy if Boateng were to move into his neighborhood.
Germany's interior minister, Thomas de Maiziere, said every German should be happy to have Boateng as a fellow citizen, team-mate or neighbor.
The AfD has seen support surge amid disenchantment with Chancellor Angela Merkel's open-door policy towards refugees fleeing conflicts and poverty in the Middle East and beyond. More than one million migrants arrived in Germany last year.
Last week supporters of German anti-Islamic group Patriotic Europeans against the Islamization of the Occident (PEGIDA) criticized a confectioner's decision to print images of non-white soccer players on its chocolate bars, instead of the usual picture of a blond-haired, blue-eyed boy.
Germany's national team includes several other players of mixed ethnic background, including third-generation Turkish-German winger Mesut Özil.
Germany has struggling to cope with the rise of xenophobia and hate towards migrants. With the migrant influx sharply down in recent months, the right-wing and populist Alternative für Deutschland party (AfD) has aligned itself with the xenophobic and anti-Islamic PEGIDA street movement. "Islam is not part of Germany," ran a headline in the AfD policy paper, a policy which some 2,400 members voted for at a party congress in the western city of Stuttgart.
Interior Minister Maiziere warned Germany is experiencing a "part-brutalization" of its society amid a surge in attacks on refugee and migrant shelters in the country. There have been 449 assaults on such centers so far this year, Maiziere told Funke Media Group in an interview to be published on Monday, adding that if that pace is maintained over the rest of the year, the figure could match last year's total of 1,029.
There were only 62 reported attacks on shelters for migrants and refugees in 2013 and 199 in 2014, but the arrival of more than one million migrants in Germany last year led to a significant increase in assaults, de Maiziere said. In addition to the attacks on centers housing migrants, there were 654 crimes against migrants and asylum seekers in the country, including 107 violent incidents, he said.
Bayern Munich defender Boateng, born in Berlin to a Ghanaian father and German mother, is a stalwart of Germany's national soccer team and is likely to play for his country in next month's European Championship in France.
"People find him good as a football player but they don't want a Boateng as their neighbou," Alexander Gauland, vice-chair of Alternative for Germany (AfD), told the Sunday edition of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper.
Gauland later said he was simply relaying the opinion of some Germans and not expressing his own view. The remarks triggered fury on social media and criticism from across the German political spectrum.
Some supporters in the Augsburg stadium where Germany played Slovakia on Sunday night displayed banners supporting the 27-year old, with one saying: "Jerome, move in next to us!"
Boateng, who picked up his 58th cap on Sunday and helped Germany win the World Cup in 2014, told German TV channel ARD after the match: "I can only smile about it. It's sad that something like this can still happen today. I believe there were enough positive answers today in the stadium. I saw some banners."
Midfielder Sami Khedira, who captained Germany on Sunday and has a Tunisian father, described Gauland's words as "outrageous." Before the match, hundreds expressed their solidarity with Boateng on micro-blogging site Twitter.
"If you want to win titles for Germany, you need neighbors like him," tweeted Boateng's fellow German international player Benedikt Howedes. Using a Twitter hashtag that translates as "my neighbor Boateng," user Andreas Mayer tweeted: "There's a free flat in our building, but not for Mr Gauland."
AfD party co-chairwoman Frauke Petry apologized to Boateng in comments to the Bild newspaper. In comments emailed to Reuters, AfD co-chair Joerg Meuthen said he would be happy if Boateng were to move into his neighborhood.
Germany's interior minister, Thomas de Maiziere, said every German should be happy to have Boateng as a fellow citizen, team-mate or neighbor.
The AfD has seen support surge amid disenchantment with Chancellor Angela Merkel's open-door policy towards refugees fleeing conflicts and poverty in the Middle East and beyond. More than one million migrants arrived in Germany last year.
Last week supporters of German anti-Islamic group Patriotic Europeans against the Islamization of the Occident (PEGIDA) criticized a confectioner's decision to print images of non-white soccer players on its chocolate bars, instead of the usual picture of a blond-haired, blue-eyed boy.
Germany's national team includes several other players of mixed ethnic background, including third-generation Turkish-German winger Mesut Özil.
Germany has struggling to cope with the rise of xenophobia and hate towards migrants. With the migrant influx sharply down in recent months, the right-wing and populist Alternative für Deutschland party (AfD) has aligned itself with the xenophobic and anti-Islamic PEGIDA street movement. "Islam is not part of Germany," ran a headline in the AfD policy paper, a policy which some 2,400 members voted for at a party congress in the western city of Stuttgart.
Interior Minister Maiziere warned Germany is experiencing a "part-brutalization" of its society amid a surge in attacks on refugee and migrant shelters in the country. There have been 449 assaults on such centers so far this year, Maiziere told Funke Media Group in an interview to be published on Monday, adding that if that pace is maintained over the rest of the year, the figure could match last year's total of 1,029.
There were only 62 reported attacks on shelters for migrants and refugees in 2013 and 199 in 2014, but the arrival of more than one million migrants in Germany last year led to a significant increase in assaults, de Maiziere said. In addition to the attacks on centers housing migrants, there were 654 crimes against migrants and asylum seekers in the country, including 107 violent incidents, he said.