A senior German conservative has suggested that the newly elected leader of The Left party, Luigi Pantisano, should withdraw from politics, after Pantisano compared the mainstream Christian Democratic Union (CDU) to fascists and the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.
"Anyone who equates the CDU with fascists and the AfD has disqualified himself from any serious democratic debate," Daniel Günther, who is premier of the far northern state of Schleswig-Holstein, told dpa on Monday, without naming Pantisano directly.
The remarks were first reported by the mass-circulation Bild newspaper.
The CDU state leader said the comparison showed a disregard for history and played down actual far-right extremism in Germany.
"Someone like that cannot be a partner for democrats and should leave politics as quickly as possible," Günther said.
Pantisano calls his own wording reductive
Pantisano sharply attacked the CDU in a Bild interview at the weekend. "Ultimately, there is currently no difference between the CDU, which pursues fascist policies, the AfD, or the fascists themselves," he said, just hours before his election as party leader.
CDU Secretary General Carsten Linnemann reacted with outrage. There was also unease within The Left itself.
When asked about his remarks, Pantisano said he himself considered the wording unfortunate. "It's reductive," he told dpa on Saturday. "The point is that parties like the CDU are adopting the wrong policies of the AfD and thereby making it stronger. It is secondary whether the same inhuman policies are pursued by a different party or by the AfD itself."
