Remmo son posts chat with Left politician Koçak after election party scandal
Firas Remmo published a chat on Instagram with federal parliament member Ferat Koçak. The Left party leader announced clarification talks.
Chat between Remmo son and Left-party MP becomes public
Firas Remmo, son of Berlin clan boss Issa Remmo, has published a screenshot of a chat exchange on Instagram with Neuköllner federal parliament member Ferat Koçak. This is reported by t-online.de. Freelance journalist Peter Rossberg was the first to draw attention to the post.
The chat is dated 17 February. In it, Remmo and Koçak address each other as "brother". Koçak writes: "Greetings with respect back to your father." He also asked Firas Remmo to distribute an excerpt from Koçak's Bundestag speeches. In the clip, Koçak argues that classifying people as clan members "solely on the basis of their surname" is sweeping and inadmissible. Clan criminality is "not a clearly defined criminal offence", but rather "a political catchphrase".
Firas Remmo published the video late Sunday evening on Instagram and posted the chat screenshot immediately afterwards. He accompanied the screenshot with the comment: "We are part of something great. We stand together, we hold together and we fight together for our goals." People were not there "just to be present", but "to create, to move and to win". He further wrote: "We are winners. We are achievers. We are a team."
Reactions from party leadership
Left party chairwoman Ines Schwerdtner said regarding the post: "We will clarify this with Mr Koçak." She was reportedly already informed about the publication.
The incident follows a scandal surrounding the election party of the Neuköllner district association of the Left party. Issa Remmo appeared there following the party's success in the state parliament election. A party spokesman told t-online.de that Remmo had not been invited and the event was publicly accessible.
Bjoern Thielebein, state business manager of the Berlin Left party, was outspoken: "Guys like him are definitely not allies of ours. He was neither invited nor on any guest list. Everything you hear and know about this person is disgusting." Remmo was escorted out.
District association rejects connections
In a further statement, the party distanced itself again. Jorinde Schulz from the district board of the Neuköllner Left said in response to an inquiry from the German Press Agency: "We were unaware of the person and his presence in particular, he is not on our registration list. There are neither political nor personal relationships with this person." Remmo's visit to the election party had "of course" changed nothing about that.
Source: Google News LU DE