Karamba Diaby’s announcement he wants to spend time with family comes after bullet and arson attacks on his office

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.

      • jabjoeEnglish
        6·
        2 days ago

        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.

        • Miaou@jlai.luEnglish
          2·
          1 day ago

          What? France famously did not get rid of its own collabos, and the US was always fascist leaning even back then. Given how ridiculously aggressive the AfD campaigns, I’m actually more worried about their 16% than I do about the RN’s 30%.

        • Pleb@feddit.deEnglish
          41·
          2 days ago

          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.