German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said citizens must do more to tackle racism and the far right in the wake of a week of often violent protests in Chemnitz.
Mass told Bild am Sonntag that people must “get up off the sofa and speak up.”
“We must stand up to the right-wing extremists. We can’t duck away. We must show our faces against neo-Nazis and anti-Semites,” he said. “Only then will Germany’s reputation not be permanently marred by xenophobic crimes.”
He continued, “If the Hitler salute is shown on our streets today once again, it will be a disgrace to our country.”
On Saturday, thousands marched through Chemnitz, an eastern city that has been rocked by violent protests in the wake of the fatal stabbing of a 35-year-old German. The first protests, last Sunday, drew around 800 people, some of whom reportedly attacked police and people they thought were immigrants, shouting “We are the people” and “You’re not welcome here.”
Peter Altmaier, the economic affairs minister and Angela Merkel’s former chief of staff, told the BBC on Saturday, “I feel ashamed when I see this violence that was directed against innocent people, immigrant people, and this is absolutely not acceptable.”