Former CDU member of parliament Wolfgang Bosbach has sharply criticized Federal Labor Minister Bärbel Bas (SPD) for a speech she gave on the “Unity in Diversity” day of action.
During her now infamous speech, Bas spoke there about discrimination faced by people “who are supposedly different and deviate from a norm,” including those with disabilities, queer people, and transgender people. With the rise of populist parties, the situation is escalating, the minister said.
“Open society is becoming a threat scenario. The so-called ‘foreign’ are being labeled as an attack on our culture,” Bas said, bemoaning that Germany knows all too well from its past how such labelling turns out.
🇩🇪🔴Germany needs even more diversity, says Labor Minister Bärbel Bas, who then refers to Germany before mass immigration as "uniform gray," and even "brown," in a nod to the Nazi era.
"And we want to fight for color and also stand against this so-called 'uniform grey,' or I… pic.twitter.com/l4mrJfDngO
— Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) May 27, 2026“And we want to fight for color and also stand against this so-called ‘uniform grey,’ or I even call it ‘brown.’ Even if some people may long for it. But that’s simply not how it is anymore. And that’s a good thing,” Bas stated, crossing a line for many by alluding to Nazis when speaking about right-wing parties.
In an interview with WeltTV, quoted by Junge Freiheit, Bosbach stated: “Brown stands for ethnic, racist, and nationalist thinking, for the darkest chapter of German history,” adding that he fears she decided to add “brown” at her own initiative, making an already bad situation worse.
“I’m guessing the uniform gray, so far so bad, was in the manuscript. Then she probably added (…) uniform brown.”
Bas was attempting to argue that more immigration is not just about economics, asserting that migrants are needed and can fulfill high-skilled jobs, but that diversity is good in and of itself.
Focus magazine chief online correspondent Ulrich Reitz said that Bas is essentially insulting ethnic Germans and wildly distorting the past. “Bas calls us ‘gray’ or, in other words, boring, or even ‘brown.’ What she means by that should be clear. That’s already inappropriate and somehow insulting, isn’t it? She designs a social picture of German society before immigration that she frames as ‘uniform gray.'”
Bosbach called it an “unbelievable incident” during which the minister had “placed large segments of the population under latent suspicion of fascism.”
The former MP is not only referring to supporters of the anti-migration AfD party but also many other Germans who increasingly feel the burden migration has placed on German society. A recent Insa poll shows that 50 percent of respondents agree that migration is Germany’s biggest problem, while 38 percent reject this position.
Meanwhile, AfD continues to surge in the polls, hitting a new high of 29 percent this month.
When asked whether Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU) should have intervened, Bosbach said: “I wouldn’t have been surprised if the Chancellor had thrown her out,” adding that he had no idea how far she would have to go to actually get dismissed.
Bas recently faced serious backlash after claiming that migrants place no pressure on Germany’s welfare system and nobody is immigrating to the country simply to live off it.
“Immigration into the welfare state threatens social cohesion! The fact is: More and more immigrants are pushing into our social welfare system – and are bringing the system to its limits and to the brink of collapse,” CSU Member of Parliament Stephan Mayer told Bild at the time.
Bas, in return, has called this notion a lie from “right-wing extremists.”
Some Germans have simply had enough, with YouTuber “Radical Living,” who boasts 2 million followers, posting a video message as to why he is leaving his country, namely, Germany’s crumbling economy and rampant crime.
🇩🇪🔴"I'm leaving Germany."
Famous German Youtuber "Radical Living" with 2 million followers explains why he is leaving his country.
"Once you have children, you also think about where you want to raise them, especially if you have a daughter. I don't think Germany is a good… pic.twitter.com/GQQQvxgUs5
— Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) May 12, 2026
