NIGEL FARAGE HAS been criticised by Jo Cox’s widower for comments he made following the attack at a Christmas market in Berlin.
Earlier today the former Ukip leader said attacks such as the one yesterday in the German capital, in which 12 people were killed when a man ploughed a truck into a market, will be Chancellor Angela Merkel’s legacy.
Brendan Cox, whose wife Jo was murdered by far-right supremacist Thomas Mair in June, replied by saying “blaming politicians for the actions of extremists” was “a slippery slope”.
The Labour MP (41) and mother-of-two was killed days before the Brexit referendum. She had campaigned in favouring of Britain remaining in the EU. Last month, Mair was sentenced to life in prison for the killing.
Immigration
The arrival of 890,000 asylum seekers in Germany last year has polarised opinions, with critics calling the influx a serious security threat. Another 300,000 people have arrived this year.
Farage later defended his comments on LBC radio, saying Merkel had “directly caused a whole number of social and terrorist problems in Germany”.
The anti-immigration MEP and friend of US President-elect Donald Trump said Cox “knows more about extremists than me” due to his support of Hope Not Hate, an anti-racism organisation.
Farage said the group “masquerade(s) as being lovely and peaceful but actually pursue violent and very undemocratic means”.
Hope Not Hate has written to Farage demanding he retracts his remarks or faces further legal action.
The group called his comments “poisonous” and “hateful”.
Meanwhile, Geert Wilders, leader of the far-right Dutch Freedom Party, tweeted an image of Merkel doctored to show her covered in blood.
The so-called Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the Berlin attack.
Earlier, the Pakistani asylum seeker arrested after the attack was released due to lack of evidence.
Merkel said if the attack was perpetrated by an asylum seeker it would be “particularly sickening in relation to the many, many Germans who are involved every day in helping refugees”.
Visibly moved, she told reporters: “I know it will be especially hard for us to take if it is confirmed that the person who committed this attack sought protection and asylum in Germany.”
She pledged that German authorities would “get to the bottom” of the assault and that it would be “punished with the full force of our law”.
Contains reporting from © – AFP, 2016
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