German police are investigating the apparent murder of a prominent local politician, known for his pro-migrant views, who was found dead of a gunshot wound at his home on June 2.
Walter Luebcke, a member of Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats, was found lying in a pool of blood on the terrace of his home in the state of Hesse in the early hours of the morning. He had been shot in the head.
Police from Hesse's criminal investigation division said it remained unclear why Luebcke had been shot but they did not rule out a possible political motive.
The German government slammed online comments which expressed hate and even glee over the killing, the Global Post reported on Friday
Citing Tagesspiegel, it reported German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer said that “if someone is so hated, just because he had liberal views, that is the decline of human morality.”
German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier said it is “repugnant to see how some people in the social networks are making fun of this man’s death – welcoming it and applauding it.”
Speaking in 2015, Luebcke called helping migrants a basic Christian value and said that anyone who doesn’t agree with him “can leave this country at any time.”
Sky News, citing Frankfurter Algemeine Zeitung, reported a 65-year-old man was arrested as part of the ongoing police investigation and later released.
This is not the first murder shaking Europe in relation to the migrant debate facing the continent.
British Labour MK Jo Cox was murdered in 2016 by a 52-year-old man who thought Cox was a “traitor to white people” due of her support of immigration and the EU, the Guardian reported.
Polish mayor of Gdansk Pawel Adamowicz was stabbed during a live-broadcasting of a charity event in January. .
Adamowicz opposed the extreme-right marches organized by the National Radical Camp, or ONR, in Gdansk. After one such march, in April, he personally organized an anti-fascist march.
The American Jewish Committee called him “a longtime friend of the Jewish community.”