Berlin (dpa) - Even after the investigations into right-wing extremist chats by police officers in North Rhine-Westphalia, Federal Interior Minister Horst Seehofer remains with his "No" to a study on racism in the police.
"That was a blow in the pit of the stomach," the CSU politician commented on the incidents in NRW in an interview with "Bild am Sonntag".
He is nevertheless convinced that the overwhelming majority of police officers are "firmly on the ground of our constitution".
"A study that deals exclusively with the police and the accusation of structural racism within the police will not be with me," emphasized Seehofer.
But he can already imagine a broader study dealing with racism.
"It takes a much broader approach to society as a whole, and that's what we're working on," he added.
The idea of a study that also looks at possible racist discrimination in the job center or when looking for accommodation had already been discussed in the new cabinet committee on racism and right-wing extremism.
Seehofer had commissioned the Office for the Protection of the Constitution months ago to draw up a picture of the situation on right-wing extremism in the security authorities by the end of September.
His refusal to entrust scientists with the investigation of racist attitudes in the police, met with criticism not only from politicians of the SPD, the Left Party and the Greens.
The satirist Jan Böhmermann responded on Friday with an insulting tweet, which he later deleted.
He wrote on Twitter: “I tweeted three bad words about Horst Seehofer in anger” and “I would like to apologize to the Federal Minister of the Interior again - explicitly not as a fictional character, but as the son of a police officer!
Using the hashtag #DankePolizei, numerous Twitter users wrote about negative experiences with the police on Sunday.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 200920-99-635583 / 3
Böhmermann on Twitter
Seehofer interview (chargeable)
