The East German state of Saxony-Anhalt is known as of the strongholds of Germany's far-right AfD party who look set to enter parliament for the first time in upcoming elections. But it's also the home of Germany's first black African MP, Karamba Diaby, who was elected to parliament four years ago.
Ira Spitzer filed this report from East Germany, where the Senegalese-born politician is in the midst of a heated reelection campaign.
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VO#1 When one of Germany's far-right parties attacked Karamba Diaby on Facebook last month, the German MP who grew up in Senegal, didn't mince his words - "To all racists, I am not your negro" he wrote in a blistering response that went viral on the Internet.
SOT, Karamba Diaby, Member of German parliament (SPD)
"Social media is a free space, but it shouldn't be a space where everything is allowed. It's the job of all democrats to take a stand when illegal content surfaces and we shouldn't let it go unchallenged."
VO#2 Diaby's story is one that challenges the stereotype of racism in this state in the former East Germany. He arrived in the city of Halle in 1985 to study chemistry, and never left, forging close relationships with locals who voted him into office four years ago. It's also a place where the anti-immigrant AfD party placed second in statewide elections last year. This local voter tried to explain the AfD's appeal.
SOT, Lea, German voter
"The AfD is making a lot of promises about the things they want to change, and thats maybe giving people hope. And those people will vote for them."
VO#3 His focus has long been here where people are concerned with issues like education and a sluggish economy compared to the west. But many still focus on his ethnicity, which he sees as a problem for a country where more than one in five people now have foreign roots.
SOT, Karamba Diaby, Member of German parliament (SPD)
"If the presence of this person in the German parliament or in politics is viewed as anamoly, then that has less to do with me than with the fact that political participation here has a long way to go."
VO#4 Still, he has maintained ties to the African continent, visiting his native Senegal regularly and is involved in African initiatives in parliament. Diaby's Social Democrats have lagged in the polls heading into Sunday's federal elections, putting more pressure on all of their MPs to retain their seats. Despite this shift to the right, confronting racism head-on is one of the ways he hopes to do that. Ira Spitzer, Berlin
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