Alexander Gauland, vice chair of anti-immigration party, deputy leader of Alternative for Germany, was quoted Sunday, May 29, 2016, as telling the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper: “People find him good as a footballer”.
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The German people also responded with the hashtag #boatengmeinnachbar (Boateng My Neighbour) to highlight their disagreement with Gauland’s views.
On Sunday, the 75-year-old Gauland attempted to back track.
Bayern Munich chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge has hit out at Alternative fur Deutschland (AfD) politician Alexander Gauland following the latter’s controversial comments toward Jerome Boateng.
“I do not know him nor would I therefore have the idea to devalue him as a personality”.
But his and Germany’s performance on the pitch at the weekend were overshadowed by the furore following allegedly racist comments by the deputy chief of the right-wing AfD (Alternative for Germany) party.
And Petry subsequently tweeted: “Jerome Boateng is a super footballer who is rightly a member of the German national team. I’m looking forward to the European championship”.
Nevertheless, Gauland’s comments have fallen offside with key figures in German football and politics.
The president of the German DFB football association, Reinhard Grindel, told the same newspaper that it was “simply tasteless” to exploit the popularity of Boateng and the national team “for political slogans”. “Jerome Boateng is a wonderful human being and an example to follow as a professional football player at this club”.
Germany’s national team includes several other players of mixed ethnic background including third-generation Turkish-German winger Mesut Özil. “They require no comment; such people discredit themselves on their own”.
Boateng’s German teammate Benedikt Howedes took to Twitter to support the Bayern Munich defender, saying “If you want to win titles for Germany, you need neighbours like him”.
“Discrimination of any kind has no place in sport or in our society and deserves the red card”.
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Justice Minister Heiko Maas called Gauland’s comment “unacceptable”. He wrote on Twitter: “Anyone who talks like this unmasks himself, and not just as a bad neighbour”.
