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.
This guy has been living in East Germany since fucking 1985. It saddens me to read this. Fuck the AfD.
Fuck the AfD Voters…I’ve been destroying years of friendships, because it turns out they voted AfD. I’m sick and tired of these fuckers enabling these clowns. This is definitely not my Germany anymore.
The friendship purge hurts… it’s tough to see that people you knew for years are lost like that.
I also feel kind of helpless with the current political climate. I don’t get why people are so hateful and stupid otherwise they would see right through the BS Höcke et al are making up all the time >.<
It sucks, for sure. As an American, I went through this back in 2016, and in the years since - with another notable wave occurring after January 6th.
It’s frustrating, but I genuinely do feel a moral duty to aggressively shun and abuse fascists, no matter how long I’ve known them or how I’m related to them before I found out.
It’s not just a moral duty, it’s a damn duty for your country. Those idiots shouting “We are the true patriots” have lost everything both our countries stood for since we lost the war and you won it. The respect for people, the respect for different cultures, the knowledge that many of the laws our societes stand on are written in blood - hell, the respect to disagree and the ability do have different opinions.
I totally sympathize. A lot of us Americans had to do the same thing back in 2016. I cut off contact with a lot of people and have never gotten back in touch.
Keeping these friendships going could combat their radicalization, but I’m not faulting you, I also cancelled friendships over this.
I have no issue if political views don’t line up, in fact I welcome discussions and I have been wrong many times on some topics. However, the line has to be drawn somewhere, and that somewhere is openly advocating for racism or other views, that simply cannot stand in a society that aligns with modern “western” views. (Too many individual points that we take for granted these days)
If I cancelled all of the friendships I have with radicalized people, I would almost certainly have to isolate my little family completely.
I do try to talk time back over the line, but I don’t think I have ever succeeded.
I wish you luck, but that simply isn’t possible with some, they are too far gone.
Do you need to include “fuck” on every comment you do just to get attention?
Nazis gonna nazi. Shameful.
In Germany? I thought they got rid of those…like…a while ago.
After the war most Nazis were allowed to keep working in government (and elsewhere) cause who else knew how to run the country?
And it’s less they got rid of them, and more others came over and kicked their arse forcing them to “get rid of them”.
There was a process : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denazification
That process was a bad joke.
I don’t think so.
Only now are Nazis getting a foot hold again, at the same time they are getting a foot hold across the world. It is the after effects of the 2008 crash and Putin putting his thumb on scales where he can (troll farms and corruption).
The fact Germany doesn’t stick out as more Nazi that France, or the US, or others, means the original denazification worked.
No, they surely didn’t just gain a foothold again. Many processes for “denazifizierung” were just a rubber stamping of the claims of the perpetrators. It’s so ridiculous and well known that the term “Persilschein” was coined because of it. High ranking judges in the federal courts were Nazi perpetrators that even by the standards back then never should have been able to hold a job in the justice system ever again.
Places like the BND or BfV were more like SS- and other Nazi perpetrator pension schemes. Himmlers daughter, glowing Nazi for her whole life, worked for the BND as a secretary in the 60s under a false name. And they knew who she was.Also, a big part of the student protest in the late 60s also was that many of their professors were just plain Nazis. Law commentaries like the “Palandt” or “Schönfelder” were named after Nazis and the names just changed in 2021.
In the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s West Germany was a poster-child for Denazification and democracy, and Nazi propaganda was and is illegal in Germany.
Even Scandinavian country Sweden, hailed for their liberal policies, had more Nazis than Germany.But after reunification the weed began to grow back. AfD popularity is very much driven by the old Communist east Germany, which was also totalitarian.
Maybe it would have been better if East and West Germany hadn’t been reunited?
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.
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.
definitely related to the AfD’s recent success during the EU election
In case anyone is curious, there’s also Aramand Zorn, SPD (just like Diaby), Awet Tesfaiesus, Greens, and Harald Weyel, AfD, of all parties. Also happens to be the only native-born German.
Diaby is member of the SPD, their left wing on top of that which makes him a target for Nazis in the first place and his skin colour of course isn’t helping. Neither is his constituency being in the east though do note that he didn’t get into the Bundestag over the party list, he won a FPTP seat.
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.
Germany needs more black politicians
Why not more disabled people or women instead?
Them too.
Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good.
Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good
Perfect?
“Perfect” would be to have complete/proportional diverse representation.
“Good” is having any diversity.
Removed by mod
Because their one black representative got bullied out. Meanwhile a white woman was PM for a long time (Merkel)
What about black disabled women?
Sad he faced so much racism. I understand why he is doing this.
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Normal European behavior
Not a racist bone amongst them, until you start talking about immigration or Travelers.
Or they actually see a black person.
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?
Don’t you get it? This one was one of the good ones. /s
