BERLIN – A prominent lawmaker with the nationalist and anti-Islam Alternative for Germany party has run into trouble with police and Twitter over her response to a Cologne police tweet offering New Year greetings in Arabic.
Beatrix von Storch tweeted her objections to a Saturday police tweet in Arabic, alongside other foreign languages. She wrote: “Do they think they will calm the barbaric, Muslim, group-raping hordes of men this way?”
Von Storch’s Twitter account was blocked for several hours Monday over a suspected breach of rules on hate speech. Police said Tuesday they filed a criminal complaint to prosecutors over suspected incitement.
New Year celebrations in Cologne were overshadowed two years ago when hundreds of women complained of being groped and robbed, mostly by groups of migrants.