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Germany\u2019s first African-born member of Parliament said this week that he would not seek office again in next year\u2019s general elections. Although he played down racism as a factor, he made the announcement a short time after his staff released the contents of a slew of hate mail and death threats that his office had received.<\/p>\n
The lawmaker, Karamba Diaby, a 62-year-old Senegal native first elected in 2013, said in a letter written to his colleagues that he wanted to make way for a new generation of politicians and that racism was \u201cnot the main reason\u201d for his decision. But he has been outspoken about the abuse he has experienced, which has markedly increased in volume and tenor in recent years.<\/p>\n
Bullets were fired through the window<\/a> of his district office in 2020, and the office was a target of arson<\/a> last year.<\/p>\n \u201cI can\u2019t wipe all this away,\u201d Mr. Diaby was reported as saying in an interview, according to the Funke Media Group, a major German newspaper and magazine publisher. \u201cThese are not small things.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The election over a decade ago of Mr. Diaby, who holds a Ph.D. in chemistry and emigrated to East Germany in 1985, was at the time hailed as a major win for equality. Mr. Diaby, who belongs to Chancellor Olaf Scholz\u2019s Social Democrats party, cited a desire to spend more time with family as a main reason for his departure.<\/p>\n Yet the far-right Alternative for Germany party, known as AfD, has been far outpolling his center-left party in his constituency.<\/p>\n Mr. Diaby has blamed the rising AfD, whose populist platform won them second place in Germany in the recent European Union elections, for the spike in racism and threats.<\/p>\n \u201cIn the last few years, I\u2019ve faced several murder threats,\u201d he said in a podcast interview with Politico.eu<\/a> this week. \u201cThis has now overstepped the mark.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe hatred that the AfD sows every day with its misanthropic narratives is reflected in concrete psychological and physical violence,\u201d he added. \u201cThis endangers the cohesion of our society. We cannot simply accept this.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The city of Halle, which Mr. Diaby represents, is in the state of Saxony-Anhalt, one of the eastern states where the nationalist and anti-immigrant AfD dominates.<\/p>\n Just last year, Mr. Diaby struck a very different tone against those who had threatened him.<\/p>\n \u201cOver 42,000 people in Halle voted for me,\u201d he said in an interview with Der Spiegel newsmagazine<\/a>. \u201cQuitting would mean giving their votes less weight than those of a hateful minority.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI would never allow that to happen,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n Christopher F. Schuetze contributed reporting.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n