German police have filed a complaint against a prominent member of Germany’s far-right AfD party over a tweet on New Year’s Eve which they say violated laws against incitement to hate.
Beatrix von Storch, deputy leader of the party’s parliamentary faction, had criticised Cologne police for sending a New Year’s greeting in Arabic on Twitter.
“What the hell is going on with this country? Why is an official police site... tweeting in Arabic?” she wrote. “Did you mean to placate the barbaric, Muslim, gang-raping hordes of men?”
Von Storch’s tweet appeared to reference chaotic 2015 New Year’s Eve celebrations in Cologne, which were marred by mass sex assaults on women by men of mostly North African origin.