The Mayor of Tübingen, Boris Palmer, is making headlines again. At a controversial conference at the Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main, he triggered a scandal on Friday evening, among other things the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung” (FAZ) reported. The politician was therefore a participant in the discussion round “Control migration, shape plurality”. In the run-up to the event, Palmer chatted with other conference attendees — using the N-word several times.
Videos on social media show Palmer trying to justify his choice of words to students on campus. “You judge people by a single word.” After a brief pause, he added, “That’s nothing but a Star of David.” This statement has been criticized as trivializing the Holocaust.
The students present, some of whom had come to demonstrate against the event, were visibly upset. Many chanted “Nazis out” in chorus. The politician also agreed. “I don’t want any Nazis in this country either,” he said.
In the subsequent panel discussion, the situation is said to have escalated further because of the statements. How the “Frankfurter Rundschau” (FR) reported, the politician insisted that context is important when using the N-word.
If you use it against a person standing in front of you because they have black skin, it is “a justiciable insult”. There is no need to discuss that. Palmer said: “If I refer to a person in front of me as N… that is a justiciable insult. (…) But when I discuss the question of whether Astrid Lindgren’s novel should be written in future as Südseekönig or N…könig, then that is a perfectly legitimate use of the word N… (…) I won’t let myself label as a racist from the compound of the word itself.”
According to the FAZ, other conference participants such as the psychologist Ahmad Mansour, the social scientist Ruud Koopmans and the politician Manuel Ostermann replied that the word was an insult – especially if it was repeated several times. The moderator of the event finally left the room. “Mr. Palmer, I want nothing more to do with you,” he said.
Despite the scandal, Palmer held his lecture entitled “Memorandum for a different migration policy”. According to the FAZ, he proposed, among other things, quality cuts in the care of newly arriving refugees and initial care in kind instead of money.
This is necessary to meet the limited resources on the housing market, in health and education.
His behavior severely damaged the very good and differentiated conference and is unacceptable.
Susanne Schroeter from the Frankfurt Research Center Global Islam, which Boris Palmer had invited to the conference
On Saturday morning, the organizer of the conference finally commented on the incident on Friday evening. “I emphatically distance myself from the statements made by Boris Palmer,” writes Susanne Schröter from the Frankfurt Research Center for Global Islam, who invited Palmer to the conference. “His behavior severely damaged the very good and differentiated conference and is not acceptable.”
Even before this incident, the event had been criticized. It was not a “serious scientific conference,” said a statement from the Asta at the University of Frankfurt. With its guests, the event helps to spread “right-wing and populist narratives”, said Nabila Saya from the Asta of the FR. The conference was “politically motivated”. And there is no differentiated discussion of the issue of migration.
Palmer has been Mayor of Tübingen since 2007 and was confirmed in office for another eight years in October 2022. The 50-year-old ran as an independent candidate because his membership in the Greens was suspended until the end of 2023 due to arguments about breaking taboos and allegations of racism. In February, a new group within the Greens advocated a radical reversal in migration policy in a hotly debated paper. Palmer was one of the most prominent signers. (lem)
