Inflammatory Merz remarks on migrants' violence against women slammed

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has caused a storm with incendiary remarks about immigrants being responsible for online violence against women.

“With his comments yesterday, Mr Merz has shown that he is not concerned with protecting women, but with political exploitation,” Mehtap Caglar, chairman of the Turkish Community in Germany (TGD), told dpa on Thursday.

Responding to a question on digital gender-based violence, Merz told lawmakers in the Bundestag, Germany's lower house of parliament, that society is seeing an "explosion of violence," both "in the physical and digital spheres."

"We must also address the fact that a significant proportion of this violence comes from groups of immigrants to the Federal Republic of Germany," he added, to loud objections from left-wing lawmakers.

Germany has been rocked by a controversy over gender-based violence online in recent days after a high-profile celebrity and TV presenter made serious allegations against her ex-partner, including sharing fake pornographic pictures of her on the internet without her consent.

In response to Merz, Clara Bünger from The Left on Thursday said "this violence has not been imported; it has always been here."

"All women in this country know that," Bünger said during a debate in parliament.

"Anyone who only addresses violence when they can attribute it to migrants is letting down every single woman in Germany who needs protection from patriarchal violence – regardless of where the perpetrator comes from," added TGD co-chair Caglar.

The TGD is an umbrella organization representing the interests of people within Germany's large Turkish-heritage community. The association was founded in 1995 in response to racist riots and murders.