Diaby, of the Social Democrats (SPD), entered parliament alongside Charles M Huber, who sat for the Christian Democrats for just one parliamentary term. They were the first black members of the Bundestag and their entry was hailed as groundbreaking and historic by equal rights campaigners.
Diaby, who has a PhD in chemistry, was born in Senegal and moved to the then East Germany in 1985.
He has increasingly faced racist abuse in recent years. His constituency office in Halle, Saxony Anhalt, has been an arson target, and has had bullets fired through the window. Some staff have faced blackmail attempts to stop them working for him and have been subjected to and threats, Diaby said.
“In the last few years I’ve faced several murder threats. This has now overstepped the mark,” he said. “The hatred that the AfD sows every day with its misanthropic narratives is reflected in concrete psychological and physical violence. This endangers the cohesion of our society. We cannot simply accept this.”
he literally did accepted it when he stepped down. that is what accepting “it” means in this case. it is the difference between words and actions.
and again, i understand if he is scared for his family or something and it is terrible, i am merely speaking to the logic of his statement.
if he said “it is with deep sorrow that i must now, in face of political terrorism, step down to protect my family” - that would be powerful message. saying “we don’t accept it” when you are clearly accepting it just does not make sense.
I get your point. Unfortunately not all humans are good in speeches.
I’m Italian and we had Falcone and Borsellino facing the mafia, of course it is another topic, but they were brave. They accepted the challenge and they put their lives in danger and the life of their family. There are also many other politicians over the world that just didn’t surrender against injustices.
But you have to be strong and brave, and you have to know exactly who you are fighting against and what are you fighting for. So it’s just understandable that he gave up and it is also understandable that he didn’t find a nice speech to pass a strong message to the people.
Actually I wonder, do you really need a strong message when the facts speak for themselves? (Of course yes, because people need it, but would be beautiful if they weren’t needed at all)
someone else pointed out in other comment that he is 62, i guess that is a moment where you might want to reevaluate how you spend your remaining time. it is a shame he had to do it, but good luck to him.