In spite of a recent surge in racist attacks in eastern Germany the region does not have no-go areas that foreigners should avoid for fear of neo-Nazis, a senior regional politician claimed yesterday.
Matthias Platzeck, state premier of Brandenburg, the east German state that surrounds Berlin, said black people could live safely in the state, but complained it had been "stigmatised" in the media by suggestions that foreigners should avoid the region.
"In Potsdam [the state capital], for instance, people of all skin colours can walk the streets perfectly safely; the city is more secure than many others around the world" he told the Financial Times, adding that no-go areas "do not exist".
His comments are likely to fuel a heated debate on responses to recent assaults. In April an Ethiopian man was mugged in Potsdam by two men with far-right links, and a Turkish-born politician was last month attacked in east Berlin.
Then neo-Nazi supporters marked a late-May public holiday by attacking a foreigners' festival in Weimar, south-west of Berlin, and by mugging several black people in the capital.
Concern about racist attacks has increased ahead of the football World Cup which starts in Germany next week and is expected to attract significant numbers of foreign visitors.
In rare comments from a senior legal figure, Monika Harms, Germany's newly appointed chief federal prosecutor, told a German newspaper yesterday that "far-right extremism is not just a problem for east [Germany]".
Her comments echoed concerns of many politicians and anti-racist groups that the problem was a national concern, and that warning foreigners to avoid certain areas handed a victory to far-right groups.
The controversy on no-go areas spiralled last month when Uwe-Karsten Heye, a senior politician from Mr Platzeck's Social Democratic party, warned black people not to visit parts of Brandenburg as they "might not come out alive".
Mr Platzeck said the reporting of Mr Heye's comments "had stigmatised Brandenburg in a way that really hurt us". The state has many anti-racist projects, he said. "These project workers now ask me: 'has our work over the last 10 years been in vain?'" he added.
He admitted that, compared with other states, Brandenburg had a "high level" of far-right violence. The risk of such an attack in the state is almost 10 times higher than in the western state of Hesse, according to official statistics.
He said that to promote anti-racism, teachers needed better training and nursery age children should be encouraged to mix with black people.
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