A German comedian has slammed the legacy parties’ failure on immigration and shared troubling stories from friends on how the country’s open-door policy has changed their lives for the worse.
During a guest appearance on ARD’s “Maischberger” talk show on Wednesday, satirist and cabaret artist Dieter Nuhr evoked a strong reaction after taking aim at Social Democrat (SPD) co-leader Saskia Esken, who had downplayed the issue of migration on ordinary citizens.
Nuhr criticised the German migration policy of recent years, claiming that political leaders have failed to take the public’s concerns seriously.
“I don’t know when she last spoke to a normal citizen,” Nuhr said of Esken.
He then shared troubling stories from his own circle of acquaintances: “A friend of mine pays protection money to people in his son’s class so that they don’t attack him on the way to school. Another friend’s daughter no longer wears a short skirt to school because she’s afraid of becoming fair game as a slut.”
The remarks visibly startled host Sandra Maischberger, as well as the studio audience. However, Nuhr stressed that while these are genuine concerns held by many citizens, they should not overshadow the contributions of well-integrated migrants in Germany.
“I feel sorry for all the wonderfully integrated migrants here who have to pay for this. That is the overwhelming majority,” he emphasized. Maischberger responded, “It’s good that you still say that!”
“I think now most people have understood that this is a serious problem with migration because we are reaping right-wing governments everywhere. If nothing happens now, we will have an AfD in four years at I-don’t-know-how-many percentage,” Nuhr warned.
The comedian, not a fan of the populist movement — in fact, he claims there are “a lot of psychopaths among them” — did however admit that the “rise of the AfD is based on real problems” and that the refusal of legacy parties to address them has left them “in this awkward position of probably having to react to it somehow.”
He lamented the fact that for many years, “leftists called everyone a right-wing Nazi who did not follow their policies,” to the point that the word had lost its meaning.
“If everyone is ‘a Nazi,’ then suddenly there is no longer any name for a real Nazi,” he added.
