The first African-born MP to enter the German parliament has announced he will not be standing in next year’s federal election, weeks after he revealed the hate mail, including racist slurs and death threats, he and his staff had received.
Karamba Diaby, 62, who entered the Bundestag in 2013 in a moment hailed as historic by equality campaigners, said he wanted to spend more time with his family and to make room for younger politicians.
Diaby said the racist slurs and death threats were “not the main reasons” for his decision, having frequently emphasised he would not be cowed by threats. But they are widely believed they have played a part.
He has increasingly faced racist abuse in recent years. His constituency office in Halle, Saxony Anhalt, has been an arson target, and has had bullets fired through the window. Some staff have faced blackmail attempts to stop them working for him and have been subjected to and threats, Diaby said.
I often wish people in these situations tough it out, because of they don’t, who will make the difference? Stepping down gets you one news article and then everyone forgets.
I respect his choice though, and it’s another kind of heroic to put yourself and your family’s safety first.
Normal European behavior
Not a racist bone amongst them, until you start talking about immigration or Travelers.
Or they actually see a black person.
Don’t you get it? This one was one of the good ones. /s
There are almost 30 different countries in Europe. They also have quite different cultures and policies around immigration (for example).
Who are you talking about, specifically?
This guy has been living in East Germany since fucking 1985. It saddens me to read this. Fuck the AfD.
Do you need to include “fuck” on every comment you do just to get attention?
Fuck yes.
do you need to condescendingly question other people’s freedom of expression? if you pearl clutch over seeing a comment which says ‘fuck’, maybe the internet is a little much for you to handle.
If dropping an F-bomb is your pinnacle of free speech, maybe you need a refresher on mature discussions. The internet might be too advanced for you if that’s the best you’ve got
Oh no guys! An F-bomb is about to explode! Better take cover!
definitely related to the AfD’s recent success during the EU election
His constituency office in Halle, Saxony Anhalt, has been an arson target, and has had bullets fired through the window.
Weird that this doesn’t come up until the 10th paragraph of the article.
It says it right underneath the title.
For context the shots fired on his office were in 2020 and the arson was last year, while that is awful I wouldn’t try to frame them too much as the cause for his retirement.
That means an editor decided to draw attention to it. The journalist still buried it deep in the article.
It was still mentioned at the top of the article and you missed it.
No, I saw it, and I was still surprised it appeared so late in the article.
This is just sad, will things ever change?
Only if we do a better job teaching our kids to not grow up to be nazis, racists, or easy marks for manipulate dishonest politicians.
I don’t think so. There are so many fronts on the war on bigotry and little progress has been made in 100 years. This feels like an innate property of human beings and humans will always be easy to manipulate to make them hate those that look a little different. About the only practical thing that might help is we criminalise bigotry that might damp it down a lot but people will still behave in bigoted ways they can get away with.
It’s Germany… probably not.
Sad he faced so much racism. I understand why he is doing this.
While I applaud him for wanting to make room for younger politicians, I’m sure the death threats, arson attacks and bullets were greater factors. This world sucks.
