German Chancellor Merz: Jewish life in Germany ‘is no longer safe’

In remarks at his press conference in Berlin yesterday, following his CDU party’s heavy defeats in two state elections, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz lamented that Jewish life in Germany “is no longer safe,” Germany’s dpa news agency reports.

“The CDU, and I personally, are committed to doing everything possible to ensure that Jewish life in Germany, and here in the capital, Berlin, is safe,” Merz is reported to have said. “And wherever that is threatened, we will oppose it with everything at our disposal,” the news agency quotes Merz saying.

Addressing Jewish communities in Berlin and around the world, he said that what has become possible in Berlin’s streets and squares, and in the media, “is a disgrace for Germany, and I will do everything in my power to bring it under control and push it back.”

He cited a rise in radical and openly expressed antisemitism in recent months, which he said was even being applauded, dpa reports. “And I very much hope that the SPD in particular, but also the Greens, will give a very clear response here, especially here in Berlin.”

“The fact that Jewish life is no longer safe in Germany is the heaviest burden of recent years,” Merz reportedly stressed, noting that this should deeply concern all democratic parties in Germany.