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German rightwing party in row over Jerome Boateng 'neighbour' comments German rightwing party apologises for Jérôme Boateng comments
(about 3 hours later)
A leading member of Germany’s main nationalist party has been criticised for saying many people would not want the international footballer Jerome Boateng as a neighbour, in an apparent reference to the player’s ethnicity. Germany’s anti-immigration party Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) has apologised after its deputy leader was quoted as saying that, while most people admired the international footballer Jérôme Boateng, they wouldn’t want to live next door to him.
Alexander Gauland, the deputy leader of the anti-immigration party Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), was quoted on Sunday as telling the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper: “People find him good as a footballer. But they don’t want to have a Boateng as their neighbour.” The newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung quoted AfD politician Alexander Gauland saying that “people like him as a football player. But they don’t want to have a Boateng as their neighbour.”
Germany’s national team has long reflected the varied ethnic backgrounds of its population. Berlin-born Boateng, widely seen as one of the best defenders in the world, has played 57 games for Germany and was a key player in its 2014 World Cup-winning team. Bayern Munich defender Boateng, who is teetotal and a practising Christian, has a German mother and Ghanaian father. He has been mooted as a stand-in for the national captaincy at the upcoming European Championships in France.
The Bayern Munich star could captain Germany’s starting 11 at next month’s European Championship, appearing alongside third-generation Turkish-German winger Mesut Özil, who plays for Arsenal, and other players with non-exclusively German backgrounds. Widespread criticism led Gauland to release a statement denying that he meant to insult the player. He said he had not made the comments in the form quoted by the newspaper, adding: “I don’t know him [Boateng] and would never come up with the idea of denigrating his personality.”
Disenchantment with the chancellor Angela Merkel’s welcoming stance towards refugees helped to propel AfD to strong results in regional elections this year. Jêrome Boateng ist ein Klasse-Fußballer und zu Recht Teil der deutschen Nationalmannschaft. Ich freue mich auf die EM. #Nachbarn
Gauland’s comments come days after supporters of German anti-Islam group Pegida criticised Kinder’s decision to replace the usual picture of a blond-haired, blue-eyed boy with images of non-white soccer players on its confectionary in a Euro 2016 promotion. But AfD’s party leader, Frauke Petry, on Sunday issued an apology on Gauland’s behalf, as well as tweeting “Jérôme Boateng is a great footballer and rightly part of the German national team. I am looking forward to the Euros. #Neighbours.”
The justice minister, Heiko Maas, called Gauland’s comment “unacceptable”. He tweeted: “Anyone who talks like this unmasks himself, and not just as a bad neighbour.” The president of the German football association, Reinhard Grindel, criticised Gauland, saying it was “simply tasteless” to abuse Boateng’s popularity “for political messages”.
Related: Didier Deschamps to take legal action against Eric Cantona over race claims Julia Klöckner of Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic party tweeted: “Better Boateng than Gauland as a neighbour. Typical AfD pattern: abuse, provoke – then try to relativise.”
Gauland’s comments came as a race row also threatened to engulf the French national team, after Eric Cantona suggested the ethnicity of players may have been a factor in the France manager Didier Deschamps picking his squad. Lieber Boateng als Gauland als Nachbarn. Typisches Muster AfD: beleidigen, provozieren - später dann relativieren. https://t.co/vDhbCqSz6L
The former Manchester United and international footballer claimed Karim Benzema and Hatem Ben Arfa may have been left out of the starting 11 owing to their race. Schalke defender Benedikt Höwedes, who started alongside Boateng in the Germany team that beat Argentina in the 2014 World Cup final, also commented on the affair on social media: “If you want to win titles for Germany, you need neighbours like him. #Defence.”
“Benzema is a great player. Ben Arfa is a great player,” Cantona told the Guardian. “But Deschamps, he has a really French name. Maybe he is the only one in France to have a truly French name. Nobody in his family mixed with anybody, you know. Like the Mormons in America. Wenn du für Deutschland Titel gewinnen willst, brauchst du Nachbarn wie ihn. #Abwehr #🏆⚽️🇩🇪 pic.twitter.com/hXzsI5aCq2
“So I’m not surprised he used the situation of Benzema [who was questioned by police over alleged links to a blackmail plot] not to take him. Especially after [prime minister Manuel] Valls said he should not play for France. And Ben Arfa is maybe the best player in France today. But they have some origins. I am allowed to think about that.” In the wake of Gauland’s comments, Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung also interviewed Boateng’s neighbours in Munich’s exclusive Grünwald district. One local commented that “it’s mainly the normal people who have wild parties here, not celebrities”, while a grey-haired man on the same street described Boateng as “very nice and down-to-earth. His children go to the kindergarten around the corner. Very normal.”
In response, Deschamps’ lawyer, Carlos Brusa, told French sports daily L’Équipe and news channel BFMTV this week that he was launching legal proceedings against Cantona to penalise “the unacceptable slanderous and defamatory statements that harm Mr Deschamps’ integrity”. Related: Pegida activists protest at images of non-white German footballers on Kinder bars
Gauland’s comments are the second time within days that the multicultural makeup of Germany’s football team have become the subject of a media storm. Supporters of anti-refugee protest movement Pegida had recently expressed their outrage about outrage at the depiction of a black boy on the packaging of Kinder chocolate bars – seemingly unaware that the picture was a childhood portrait of Boateng.
Championship hosts France, who like Germany have won the World Cup with a squad full of players of multiethnic backgrounds, have also been dogged by a debate about ethnicity ahead of the tournament. In an interview with the Guardian, Eric Cantona last week accused coach Didier Deschamps of having overlooked players on racial grounds.