The Greens co-chairman Ricarda Lang at the ZDF summer interview Photo: picture alliance/dpa/ZDF
By Benedict Weimer
Till Backhaus (63) is Minister of Agriculture of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. Now the popular SPD man had to apologize for a tasteless attack on Green leader Ricarda Lang (28).
In the state elections at the end of September 2021, he got the best first-vote result of all candidates in the state with 51.5 percent of the votes. Local media even speculated that he could switch to federal politics.
But now this: according to media reports, Backhaus had made an incredible verbal failure in a speech in Rostock with a view to Lang. He said, “Dick and Doof used to be two people.”
Backhaus asked for forgiveness on Saturday. His apology, however, was rather half-baked.
► The minister only said that in his free speech he had “used formulations that could possibly be misunderstood”. If “people feel hurt because of my statements, I apologize and will not repeat statements of this kind,” said Backhaus in Schwerin.
Till Backhaus (SPD), State Minister for the Environment of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania Photo: picture alliance/dpa
Backhaus did not expressly mention the name of the Green leader in his statement. The state Greens in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania had previously asked the minister to make a written statement.
Green Party leader Ole Krüger had criticized the minister’s statements as “absolutely unacceptable”. Krüger: “Personal attacks and insults are unworthy of a man of his function.” He called on Backhaus to “immediately apologize in writing to the federal chair of Alliance 90/The Greens.”