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Controversial Politician Reined in over 'Xenophobic' Campaign

Roland Koch, the controversial governor of Hesse, has raised eyebrows recently with a re-election campaign some have called xenophobic. Now, though, it looks like he has gone too far. German commentators think the Koch show may be at an end.

It had to happen sooner or later. Roland Koch, the Christian Democrat (CDU) governor of the state of Hesse, finally crossed the line to the point that his own party has come out against him. His proposal to lower the age of criminal responsibility from 14 years to 12, voiced in an interview given to the mass-circulation Sunday paper Bild am Sonntag, was decisively rejected by party leadership on Monday.

Still, the waves kicked up by Koch as he campaigns for re-election in a vote to be held on Jan. 27 continue to rock Germany's governing coalition, which pairs Chancellor Angela Merkel's CDU with the Social Democrats. His comments on youth criminality following a Dec. 20 attack on a pensioner in a Munich subway station have been branded xenophobic by a number of observers.

That attack saw a 20-year-old German-born man of Turkish background and a 17-year-old Greek immigrant send an elderly man to the hospital. Koch immediately demanded that more attention be paid to "criminal young foreigners" and suggested that immigrants in Germany need to understand that "slaughtering (animals) in the kitchen … runs counter to" German principles.

The SPD has reacted strongly to Koch's campaign, with parliamentary floor leader Peter Struck accusing Koch of being "actually happy that this terrible incident in the Munich subway took place." When outraged CDU members told him to apologize, his response was, loosely translated, "Up yours." SPD head Kurt Beck has furthermore remained firm in his refusal to cooperate with the CDU on increasing penalties for young offenders.

Koch had been backed in his campaign by leading CDU politicians, including Chancellor Merkel, but on Monday and Tuesday the tide had turned decidedly against the Hesse governor. "Nobody in the CDU wants to see children behind bars," said CDU General Secretary Ronald Pofalla on Monday. Koch quickly backed off from his new demands.

Commentators on Germany argue that Koch may now have to hit the brakes on his campaign.

The Financial Times Deutschland writes on Tuesday:

"It would be a positive development if the Hesse campaign debate about youth criminality were now to fade into the background. The discussion as to why youth with foreign backgrounds are overrepresented in crime statistics and what one should do about it, is, of course, not a meaningless one. Many citizens are concerned about the problem and would like to see their politicians take action, and as such, the issue belongs in the campaign. It would be extremely dangerous to leave the debate to the right-wing extremists."

"The topic, though, is too complex for it to be dealt with for a few weeks within the scope of a political campaign. At some point, the positions of the various parties are clear and enough has been said. Any subsequent comments or demands are nothing more than an absurd show."

The left-leaning Die Tageszeitung writes:

"Instead of uniting his own supporters behind an incisive slogan, Koch seems to have achieved the opposite with his tough rhetoric. Obvious allies in every such a law-and-order campaign, like the police union, have distanced themselves from Koch. Even the numbers of supporters from his own party have been thinning out and (the campaign against him continues to intensify). It is no wonder that Koch on Monday chose to make a tactical retreat."

Conservative daily Die Welt notes that the political left in Germany is portraying Koch as a danger for democracy:

"That is absurd. When it comes to such taboo issues as violent crime, which is disproportionately committed by young, male foreigners (sic), he is asking legitimate questions. Those who have followed his government know that Governor Koch has always seen integration as a priority -- partially to ward off attacks from his political enemies. But still, this time he overstepped his bounds."

"This time, he has identified a problem, but he has not struck a nerve. It is all too obvious that his campaign was not launched out of conviction to a specific ideology, but came rather out of envious rage at the success the Social Democrats were finding with their minimum wage propaganda. In campaigns, parties attract more attention. And can lose, as in this case, their credibility. That is a high price to pay."

-- Charles Hawley, 2:00 p.m. CET