BERLIN – Germany’s central bank took the unusual step yesterday of distancing itself from one of its own board members, Thilo Sazzarin, after he criticised some immigrants in Berlin for not being productive enough.
Mr Sazzarin, who was Social Democrat finance minister of the city of Berlin before joining the Bundesbank board in May, said in a magazine interview that many Turkish and Arab immigrants did not play a useful function in the German capital’s economy.
"A large number of Arabs and Turks in this city, whose numbers have increased due to the wrong policies, has no productive function, apart from fruit and vegetable trading," Mr Sazzarin (64) told culture magazine Lettre International.
Citing Berlin’s high jobless rate, he said part of the city’s problems lay in the fact that 40 per cent of births were among the “lower class”. He also took aim at what he called a “slob factor” in the capital.
The Bundesbank, which said it received numerous enquiries about the interview, issued a statement saying it distanced itself resolutely from Mr Sarrazin’s “discriminatory remarks”. – (Reuters)
