Thilo Sarrazin once suggested, while still Berlin’s state finance minister, that welfare recipients turn down the heating and put on a warm jumper to save money. Then he made suggestions for a Hartz IV menu that would cost just €3.98 per day. Now that he’s scored a top job at the Bundesbank (who on earth hired him), he’s been lashing out at immigrants and Muslims in his spare time.
He’s now published a “book” – Deutschland schafft sich ab (Germany is getting rid of itself) – in which he complains, with very patchy stats, that immigrants from Muslim countries cost too much and don’t give enough back to Germany or other Western European nations. They are also, “multiplying” (like viruses, rabbits, vermin), while only stupid, uneducated Germans have children. One half-baked idea after the other, one cliche after the other, one thinly veiled racist notion after the next.
Anyhow, Thilo, what are you doing in the SPD?
Step up the plate, put on your brown shirt, dude.
Finally, some all-time great Sarrazin quotes:
“Nowhere else are there as many people shuffling through the streets in tracksuits as Berlin.” (2002)
“Being underweight is the least of the problems of Hartz IV [welfare recipients].” (2008)
“A large number of Arabs and Turks have no productive function, other than selling fruit and vegetables.” (2009)
