Once once more, a traffic light personnel decision is causing heated debates.
Ferda Ataman (43) is to become Federal Commissioner for Anti-Discrimination. Today the cabinet proposed the publicist and activist. The Bundestag still has to agree.
In 2020, Ataman caused heated debates when she was in a „Spiegel“-Post defended the term “potato” for Germans without a migration background. Many citizens “sometimes mutate into thin-skinned Emo-Germans” if they were called “potatoes”, for example.
Ataman was surprised: “A surprising number of people see this as insulting discrimination. Why?” Her answer: “So the outrage regarding ‘potato Germans’ is regarding something else. It’s regarding the inner resistance to deal with yourself and your own privileges.”
Union sour: “Blatant miscast”
In the Union, the personnel causes clear criticism.
︎ Group Vice President Andrea Lindholz (51, CSU) says to BILD: “So far, Ms. Atamann has primarily attracted attention with clumsy provocations and hard left-wing ideology.” It is wrong to “insult the majority of society or play social groups off once morest each other”.
︎ Domestic politician Christoph de Vries (47, CDU) expresses in BILD “Doubts as to whether a woman who finds discriminatory terms for Germans completely okay” is suitable for the anti-discrimination job.
︎ Stefan Müller (46), parliamentary director of the CSU state group, describes Ataman to BILD as a “left-wing activist” who is “raised to a government office funded by taxpayers”. She had “so far been noticed primarily with verbal failures towards people without a migration background” and a “blatant misappointment” for the office.
Islamism expert Ahmad Mansour (45) is also critical of the personnel. Ferda Ataman will “actually be an agent for cancel culture and division of society”. Mansour continued: “This policy will create even more discrimination as it divides people according to race and skin colour. Criticism of ‘old white men’ or ‘potatoes’ is intolerance under the guise of anti-discrimination.”
BILD also asked the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens and Youth what Minister Lisa Paus (53, Greens) thinks of the term “potatoes” for Germans without a migration background.
The Ministry did not reply to this. A spokeswoman explained that Ataman will “contribute to strengthening an inclusive and democratic society”. Discrimination “for racial reasons or because of gender, sexual identity, religion or belief, age or because of a disability” is unacceptable.
Ataman’s nomination was received very positively by the Greens. Sven Lehmann (42), Queer Commissioner of the Federal Government, praised Ataman on Twitter with the words: “A strong voice for diversity and once morest discrimination!”
Bundestag Vice President Katrin Göring-Eckardt (56) congratulated Ferda Ataman and wrote on Twitter: “It’s a good choice.”
Ataman’s tweets gone
Remarkable: On Twitter, where Ferda Ataman is very active, almost all the tweets she posted disappeared. Although Ataman has been tweeting since 2012, the oldest visible post, a retweet, is from June 1, 2022.
A BILD request as to why Ataman deleted her tweets remained unanswered until the publication of this post.
According to the Ministry for Family Affairs, the Federal Anti-Discrimination Agency is “an independent contact point for people who are affected by discrimination”. The position has been vacant since 2018.