German Left Leader Slammed For Anti-Mass Migration Comments

bombing Syria
STEFFI LOOS/AFP/Getty Images

The leader of the German Left Party, Die Linke, has come out and criticised mass migration following the terror attacks in Bavaria, and her party is now calling for her resignation.

German Left Party leader Sahra Wagenknecht is under fire from her party after she made comments critical of German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s migrant crisis policies.

The left leader called Chancellor Merkel’s “we can do it!” attitude “frivolous” and demanded a  debate on the “potential dangers” migrants pose to the German population. While her party has called for her resignation over the matter she has earned support from an unlikely source, the anti-mass migration Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, Tagesspiegel reports.

The comments come in reaction to the failed suicide bombing in Ansbach that injured 12 and killed the bomber. The man responsible later transpired to be a Syrian migrant who had pledged allegiance to Islamic State. In the statement Mrs. Wagenknecht said: “The inclusion and integration of large numbers of refugees and immigrants is associated with considerable problems and is more difficult than Merkel’s frivolous, ‘We can do it.’ ”

Mrs. Wagenknecht made it clear that the safety of Germans was the most important issue saying: “The state must now do everything to ensure that people can feel safe again in our country. This presupposes that we know who is in the country and, if possible, where there is potential danger.”

The reaction to the comments from her own party have been overwhelmingly negative. The Left Party are known in Germany for their enormously pro-migrant stance with one member of the party, Gregor Gysi, commenting last year that he hoped migrants would “outbreed” native Germans: “Every year more native Germans die than are born. That is very fortunate. It’s because the Nazis are not very good at having offspring.”

Foreign policy spokesman of the Left Party, Jan van Aken, has already made calls for the resignation of Mrs. Wagenknecht saying: “Whoever criticises Merkel from the right, cannot be chairman of the Left Party.”

Some did voice their support for the Left leader’s comments. The anti-mass migration Alternative for Germany (AfD) party praised the statement with head of the party in Saxony-Anhalt, Andre Poggenburg, tweeting: “Quite right! Guilt has largely missed the German refugee policy. Mrs Wagenknecht, come to the AfD.”

Though her own party may not support her comments, increasingly more of the German political establishment, security forces, and the German public are. Recent polls have shown that Germans are more fearful than ever of potential terrorist attacks due to the influx of migrants into their country. German security services expect that even more terror attacks are on the horizon.

COMMENTS

Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.