A far-right anti-immigrant German politician, who had previously taken to Facebook to express his impassioned opposition to immigrants and refugees by writing things like "integration is genocide" and "the boat is full," was reportedly rescued from a serious car accident by two Syrian asylum seekers.
Stefan Jagsch, who recently ran for local office as a member of the National Democratic Party (NDP), suffered two broken legs and facial lacerations after his car ran off the road and into a tree last week.
According to the local fire department, two Syrian asylum-seekers happened upon the wreck, pulled Jagsch from the car, performed first aid on him and waited for an ambulance to arrive.
Dos refugiats sirians socorren el polític neonazi de l'NPD Stefan Jagsch després d'un greu accident de trànsit pic.twitter.com/DGrR2FVEth — Roger Suso (@eurosuso) March 22, 2016
The NDP has been frequently been referred to as a "neo-Nazi" party, and German chancellor Angela Merkel has called it "an anti-democratic, xenophobic, anti-Semitic, anti-constitutional party."
The upper house of Germany's parliament, the Bundesrat, argued before the Federal Constitutional Court that the NDP's platform is "essentially identical" to Adolf Hilter and has asked the court to uphold a proposed ban on the party.
Though Merkel plainly reviles the NDP,
Rainer Klotz/Dreamstime.com
which reportedly has a little more than 5,000 members and holds no seats in the German parliament, she doesn't believe prohibiting them from the political process will stamp out racist extremism.
The Washington Post's Justin Wm. Moyer quotes Merkel:
"[An NPD ban] shouldn't give anyone the illusion that this alone would tackle the extreme right-wing enemies of democracy," she said in 2013. "It is very important that we every day renew support for the rule of law and freedom, for courage and against bigotry and racism."
The Guardian reports that Jagsch had marched in a "neo-Nazi" demonstration in January where participants held signs which described immigrants and refugees as "benefit-scrounging tourists" and "lawless primates," among other un-pleasantries.
A regional NPD official expressed his gratitude to the refugees for their "very good, human actions."
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