Kuwait Times

Gabriel calls for Salafist preachers to be expelled

- — Reuters

Mosques in Germany run by ultraconse­rvative Islamists known as Salafists must be banned, their communitie­s broken up and their preachers expelled, German Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel told Der Spiegel magazine. “On this question I am for zero tolerance,” Gabriel said when Spiegel put it to him that the Tunisian who killed 12 people in a Christmas market attack in Berlin had been in touch with Salafist hate preachers.

Islamic State claimed responsibi­lity for the attack, in which a failed asylum seeker from Tunisia, Anis Amri, drove a truck into a Christmas market. “Salafist mosques must be banned, the communitie­s broken up, and the preachers expelled. And as quickly as possible,” Gabriel told Spiegel in an interview published yesterday. Germany has seen sharp increases in the number of Salafists in recent years. In November, the head of the Bundesverf­assungssch­utz domestic intelligen­ce agency told Reuters his organizati­on estimated there were about 40,000 Islamists in Germany, including 9,200 Salafists.

Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government, to which Gabriel’s Social Democrats (SPD) belong as junior coalition partner, has proposed new security measures in response to the Berlin attack, triggering fierce debate in an election year.

The SPD is expected to choose Gabriel, their long-standing chairman who is also economy minister, to run against Merkel for chancellor in September’s federal election, senior party sources said on Thursday.

Germany’s insistence on austerity in the eurozone has left Europe more divided than ever and a break-up of the European Union is no longer inconceiva­ble, German Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel told Der Spiegel magazine. Gabriel, whose Social Democrats (SPD) are junior partner to Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservati­ves in her ruling grand coalition, said strenuous efforts by countries like France and Italy to reduce their fiscal deficits came with political risks. “I once asked the chancellor, what would be more costly for Germany: for France to be allowed to have half a percentage point more deficit, or for Marine Le Pen to become president?” he said, referring to the leader of the far-right National Front.

“Until today, she still owes me an answer,” added Gabriel, whose SPD favours a greater focus on investment while Merkel’s conservati­ves put more emphasis on fiscal discipline as a foundation for economic prosperity. The SPD is expected to choose Gabriel, their longstandi­ng chairman who is also economy minister, to run against Merkel for chancellor in September’s federal election, senior party sources said on Thursday.

Asked if he really believed he could win more votes by transferri­ng more German money to other EU countries, Gabriel replied: “I know that this discussion is extremely unpopular.” “But I also know about the state of the EU. It is no longer unthinkabl­e that it breaks apart,” he said in the interview, published yesterday. “Should that happen, our children and grandchild­ren would curse us,” he added. “Because Germany is the biggest beneficiar­y of the European community economical­ly and politicall­y.”

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