'We didn't
win two world wars to be pushed around': How Germany reacted to THAT 'racist'
Brexit tweet
Rachel
Loxton
@RachLoxton
9 October
2019
09:22
CEST+02:00
'We didn't
win two world wars to be pushed around': How Germany reacted to THAT 'racist'
Brexit tweet
A
"racist" social media post and the blame game: Angela Merkel has been
in the Brexit firing line. But it’s just the latest in desperate tactics, argue
commentators in Germany.
It was
designed to shock: the advert by the Leave.EU Brexit campaign group showed
Chancellor Angela Merkel with her hand raised and the words: “We didn’t win two
world wars to be pushed around by a Kraut.”
Lewis
Goodall
✔
@lewis_goodall
Perhaps it
shouldn’t be but my jaw is on the floor. Britain’s reputation is going to take
years to recover.
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It was
shared across the group's online channels, apparently in response to reports
from a Downing Street source on Tuesday that Merkel had insisted in a phone
call to Boris Johnson that Northern Ireland remains within the EU’s customs
union when the rest of the UK leaves the bloc.
After the
tweet generated fierce backlash and was described as “racist” in the House of
Commons due to the use of the derogatory term "Kraut", the
organization deleted the original posts and apologized.
Co-founder
of Leave.EU Arron Banks admitted it “went too far”, but said “the real outrage
is the German suggestion that Northern Ireland be separated from the UK”.
He added:
“On reflection the point could have been made better.”
Across
social media, people shared their anger and disappointment at the offensive
poster. On the whole, Germans reacted cautiously, with many saying they know
this is not the view of the majority.
Albert
Link, political reporter with German daily Bild, said most people in the UK did
not feel this way. “But this is the worst post of the Leave-campaign since
2016,” he added. “Disgusting and light-years away from reality.”
Political
journalist with weekly newspaper Die Zeit, Jochen Bittner, shared the poster
with the message: “No worries, the Krauts know that this isn‘t you, dear
Britons.”
For many,
the ad was not surprising.
Jon Worth,
Germany-based political analyst, consultant and blogger who teaches EU politics
at the College of Europe in Bruges, told The Local that Brexit campaigners have
“been stirring up that sort of rhetoric over the last six to 12 months and I
don’t think that probably anyone in Germany should really be surprised”.
“It goes
into the vein of anti-German sentiment in the UK that’s never gone away.”
Worth added
that it was “sad and disappointing but not unexpected”.
“I thought
the reaction in Germany was typically relatively restrained because Germany has
seen that type of thing before in the UK press and unfortunately will have to
see it again in future.”
Political
scientist Bernd Hüttemann, who is the Vice President of the European Movement
International, called the Leave. EU tweet “meaningless because it’s
ridiculous”.
He told The
Local: "Many people including German politicians, are annoyed that there’s
a blame game going on.
"There’s
a lot of patience needed for how Westminster and UK politics is these days. And
I don’t think this kind of tweet or argument is harming anything but it’s just
showing how people are really getting nervous about the possible results (when
it comes to Brexit.)"
'Have the
British lost their minds?'
German
media focused on Tuesday's dramatic developments, which saw Downing Street
sources appear to blame Merkel for
pushing the Brexit talks between Brussels and London to the brink of collapse.
Downing
Street has not confirmed what the two leaders discussed yesterday and whether
the 'source' was correct about Merkel's words.
The report
triggered a furious response from European Council President Donald Tusk who
slammed Johnson for playing a 'stupid blame game' and 'risking the future of
the UK and Europe'.
Germany did
not give much away, with Merkel’s spokesman Steffen Seibert saying that, as was
usual, he would not comment on “private, confidential” talks between government
leaders.
Meanwhile,
German politician Sandra Weeser, of the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP), said Tusk's comments were
"absolutely appropriate".
"We're
not in the playground, we're dealing with the future of the world economy and
every individual in Europe and the UK," she said.
"We
can't allow this destructive and egocentric style of politics to become
established."
In a
commentary, German daily Welt asked: “Have the British lost their minds? What's
the matter with the British? Haven't we always considered them so reasonable
that we even use the English word “common sense” as the epitome of common
sense? But today they seem to us to have lost that common sense.”
Another
stinging editorial in the Süddeutsche Zeitung said British tactics, like
blaming Germany and the EU, are obvious to Brussels but seem to be working with
UK voters.
“Merkel is
to blame, the Germans are showing their true faces, Berlin has always wanted to
subdue us, the backstop for Ireland has always been a trap, the EU must be
smashed – these are the spontaneous reactions of British leave supporters on
the internet after the news from London that a deal with the EU is now 'quite
impossible',” they wrote.
“Boris
Johnson's calculation may be transparent in Brussels and outrageous in Berlin.
In Great Britain, however, his account seems to work out for the time being.”
With just a
few weeks until the next Brexit deadline on October 31st and no agreement in
sight, the blame game was bound to ramp up, said Worth.
“We’ve been
thinking for some time that the strategy from Downing Street will be to blame
someone. It’s going to be a combination of blaming the EU, blaming France,
blaming Germany, or on the UK side, for example blaming the House of Commons.
“It just so
happened that yesterday Merkel was in the firing line. Tomorrow it could be
Macron. Anyone but Johnson is to blame.”
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