The head of Germany’s anti-immigration AfD party Frauke Petry has compared a society incorporating migrants to a “compost heap,” triggering a barrage of criticism from the country’s politicians.
Taking a stand against the idea that migrants make societies more diverse, leader of German anti-immigrant and Eurosceptic Alternative for Germany (AfD) party Frauke Petry said: “What should we make of the campaign 'Germany is Colorful'? A compost heap is colorful, too," Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ.net) reported. Petry made the comments while giving a speech in Stuttgart, southwest Germany on Monday.
She harshly criticized the statements made by other politicians who said migrants made the country more “colorful.” Blasting the notion of a “colorful” Germany she argued for a more “homogenous” nation instead.
Petry’s remarks drew sharp criticism from Angela Merkel’s conservative CDU party, center-left Social Democrats and Greens.
“The business model of these people is to scare people,” Conservative Thomas Strobl, Interior Minister of the state of Baden-Wuerttemberg, told FAZ.net. Strobl also called Petry’s comments “revolting” and “disgusting” and warned other politicians against taking a similar approach. AfD is “not the savior but the traitor of the West,” he claimed.
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“Frau Petry's verbal baiting has reached a new level. People are systematically demeaned and played off against each other,” said Social Democrat Leni Breymaier, noting that the AfD has once again “showed its ugly face.”
This is not the first time the AfD leader has made controversial statements sparking outrage in Germany.
Last month Petry said German Chancellor Angela Merkel was a bad politician because she does not have any children.
“I have four children and Merkel has none,” Petry told Germany’s Stern daily. “Children help people to see beyond their own lifespan and that is exactly what Merkel does not do.”
Support for the AfD party has been on the rise ever since over 1 million refugees arrived to Germany last year. Established in 2013 following the euro crisis as a Eurosceptic party, the AfD party then shifted its focus to immigration and refugees. The party has made significant regional gains this year and is already represented in ten out of 16 German regional parliaments.
According to this week’s INSA poll, the support for the AfD dropped half a percentage point from last week. The current figure stands around 15 percent, which is 9 points up from a year ago. Following its latest breakthrough gains in Berlin parliamentary polls, AfD deputy leader Beatrix von Storch vowed that the party “will become the third-largest force in Germany – at least.”
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