Germany’s minority politicians either leave politics or face death threats

With a left-wing coalition set to form the next government in Germany, ethnic and religious minority politicians remain in the crosshairs of far-right extremists
Sarah-Lee Heinrich has been a rising star in the left-wing Green’s youth party. On October 9, the party named the 20-year-old as its official spokesperson and what happened next was a barrage of hate mails and death threats on social media, targetting Sarah-Lee.

The online abuse forced her to go into hiding.

Sarah-Lee is black, a woman and fairly vocal about matters relating to environmental conservation, equal rights and minority participation in politics in Germany – her political stance puts her in stark contrast to that of the country’s far-right.

Sarah-Lee’s story isn’t unique. The far-right in Germany has stepped up its harassment of minority politicians in recent years. Earlier this year, another Green party aspiring politician who wanted to be the first person of refugee background in the Germany parliament, Tariq Alaows of Syrian descent, stepped down from his candidacy and out of politics following similar death threats.

And now, one of Berlin’s leading female politicians of Palestinian descent says, “the moment you enter politics in Germany, you expect to be attacked by the far-right in what is often a well-coordinated, organised attack, almost as if someone is directing and funding it”.

Sawsan Chelbi was born and brought up in Germany. Today at 43, she is the Secretary on Federal Affair for Berlin State and also holds an advisory role in the Senate.

“It was when I started working on internal matters and became State Secretary (in 2016) for civic engagement including racism, the hate became very loud, very visible. I used social media to raise my voice – the hate increased exponentially, it was almost unbearable, I got lots of death threats, I was attacked physically on the street, whenever I tweet something even now I get so much hate. It’s not just social media, I get postal mail,” she laughs as she recounts the postcards she receives with messages of hate.