The new Federal Commissioner once made a connection between Germans and potatoes.
(Photo: IMAGO/Jürgen Heinrich)
Berlin When Ferda Ataman presented the orange-colored, 64-page annual report of the Federal Anti-Discrimination Agency on Tuesday, it was not just about the number of reported cases of discrimination in Germany. The new anti-discrimination officer himself was also put to the test. How would Ataman present herself, who was only elected to office by the German Bundestag in July with a narrow majority and is considered controversial?
It was the first public appearance of the 42-year-old political scientist and publicist in her new role. And Ataman used the more than 60 minutes to be factual and focused. “The number of cases of discrimination reported to us is alarming,” said the native of Stuttgart.
Ataman appealed to all people who experience exclusion due to different characteristics to take action, if necessary in court. The current data shows that more and more people do not put up with discrimination and are seeking help.
The new officer, who had been appointed at the suggestion of Federal Minister for Family Affairs Lisa Paus (Greens), eagerly noted questions about the report and thanked politely for inquiries. The message: she wants to take the post, which has been vacant for four years, seriously. The accusation of provocation should be impossible.
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It was precisely these allegations that led to an outcry before he took office. Critics pointed out that Ataman, as an impetuous integration activist in the corona crisis, had expressed the suspicion that people with a migration background were being disadvantaged: “I somehow have an idea which population groups are treated first in hospitals when ventilators run out,” she wrote in March 2020 on Twitter.
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The fact was also cited that former Interior Minister Horst Seehofer (CSU) felt that a text by Ataman in 2018 brought him close to the blood and soil ideology of the Nazis and therefore canceled his participation in the integration summit. The German-Israeli psychologist and author Ahmad Mansour openly criticized the book author and columnist, who is likely to become “Federal Commissioner for Division and Identity Politics”.
“Extend the leeway”
There was the sharpest hostility for a column by Ataman in “Spiegel” from 2020, in which she attacked the “white Germans” as “Germanic descendants” and “native natives” and accused them of sometimes mutating into “thin-skinned Emo-Germans” if they would be called “white*r, Alman or potato”. Atman saw the fact that it was always mentioned with regard to her own person that her family had come to Germany from Turkey 50 years ago as an attack that called her “Germanness” into question.
On Tuesday, the CDU/CSU also used the presentation of the anti-discrimination agency’s annual report to very sharply reaffirm its criticism of Ataman. With the appointment of Ataman as federal commissioner, the traffic light coalition has “done a disservice” to the issue of anti-discrimination, said the domestic political spokesman for the Union faction, Alexander Throm.
The report shows that there are still major challenges in overcoming unjustified disadvantages such as age, origin, gender, disability or sexual identity. Part of the spectrum of discrimination in Germany – “racism among migrants” and anti-Semitism as part of Islamist ideology – is ignored by it, criticized Throm. Instead, she defames Germans without a migration background “as potatoes and racists”.
The concept of ‘identity politics’ is cumbersome and difficult to understand. Ferda Ataman, Federal Commissioner for Anti-Discrimination
The fact that Ataman’s authorities reported a total of 5,617 cases last year that were related to one of the discrimination grounds specified in the Anti-Discrimination Act (AGG) almost faded into the background. The incidents – 37 percent of those affected complained about racial discrimination, 32 percent disadvantages due to disability and chronic illnesses, 28 percent discrimination in working life – together with an assumed high number of unreported cases, show how much work is ahead of Ataman.
In fact, the anti-discrimination officer declared on Tuesday that they wanted to “expand their leeway a bit”. In addition, after 16 years, a substantive AGG reform is pending. It could be about protecting caring relatives or parents from discrimination in working life.
When asked about the sharp criticism of her person, the former speechwriter of Armin Laschet (CDU) clapped her hands during his time as North Rhine-Westphalian Minister of Integration. The concept of “identity politics” is “unwieldy and difficult to understand”. She is concerned with people who demand equal treatment that is denied to them. After her election, some critics approached her, congratulated her and announced that she was now looking ahead. Ataman said: “I’m looking forward to it.”
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