Office of German anti-migrant politician vandalized in Leipzig

Attackers have trashed the Leipzig office of a politician from German Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic coalition who recently found herself in hot water over anti-migrant remarks. A left-wing, anti-fascist website claimed responsibility.

The assailants damaged both the inside and outside Bettina Kudla’s office. The outside was covered in an unidentified black substance resembling tar, according to DPA. The windows were also broken, and the inside of the office was trashed.

Kudla has been making some inflammatory statements of late, including using the word ‘Umvolkung’ (ethnicity inversion) in a tweet. To non-Germans this is a known Nazi phrase to denote the ‘Germanization’ of newly-acquired territories. It has been used by opponents of Merkel’s immigration policies – particularly by the far and extreme right.

Kudla wrote on Twitter: "The ethnicity inversion of Germany began long ago. It's time for action!"

The message cannot longer be found in her Twitter feed.

The CDU was very critical of Kudla’s words. Following Kudla’s tweet, CDU parliamentary leader Volker Kauder told Spiegel: “Ms. Kudla’s choice of words was completely unacceptable.

“But we are going to take it one step at a time… At the moment there is no reason to exclude her from the party faction.”

AfD deputy leader Beatrix von Storch reportedly offered Kudla the opportunity to jump ship and join the right-wing party, according to The Local.

There is a lack of forensic proof on who’s behind the attack on Kudla’s office, but the left-wing and anti-fascist German website ‘linksunten.indymedia’ claimed responsibility. The group takes issue with Kudla’s actions that they claim led to the exacerbation of the situation for migrants in Germany.

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Kudla has a history of controversial positions, including being the only voice in parliament that stood against the vote to recognize the Armenian genocide. This is also not the first attack on her office, which was also targeted in August.

The events are all believed to be associated with the worrying rise in right-wing popularity, prompting a backlash from anti-fascist hooliganism and vandalism, with violence on both sides.

Germany remains by far the biggest contributor to the accommodation of refugees from the Middle East and North Africa – a fact that has led to the spawning of right-wing sentiment and groups engaging in violence against the immigrants.

Although last year the estimated number of people taken in stood at higher than 1 million, the figure has been revised in 2016, and now stands at 890,000. The reduction was caused by registration blunders associated with some people registering twice.