Fernand Kartheiser fiercly criticised Luxembourg's Minister of Foreign Affairs during a parliamentary session last Thursday. Among other things, he labelled Jean Asselborn "patron saint of human traffickers in the Mediterranean Sea" and implicitly accused him of human trafficking. Jean Asselborn has now reacted to the charges of Facebook.
Last Thursday, various members of the government had reacted with outrage to Kartheiser's accusations because he equated the Minister of Foreign Affairs with a criminal. François Bausch, Prime Minister Xavier Bettel and LSAP's Alex Bodry, among others, had protested.
The governing parties were about to leave the parliamentary session shortly thereafter and Kartheiser received an official warning from the Chamber President.
In his comment on Facebook, Asselborn stressed that the ADR displayed a strong political inclination to the right and the party was increasingly mirroring the German AfD.
Helping desperate families that try to escape the lack of prospects of Libyan refugee camps constitutes a crime in the eyes of the ADR and the AfD, Asselborn argued. He explained that Luxembourg was one of nine European countries that offer refugees who are saved at sea a chance of obtaining asylum status. In the last 14 months, the Grand Duchy has taken in around 60 people and started their asylum procedure. Not all of them, Asselborn explained, ultimately also receive asylum status. An average of 60 applications (out of 1000 applications per year) are successful. All of them, however, survive and are reunited with their right to human dignity. Asselborn stressed that "this is what Luxembourg's government has done and will continue to do."
He concluded that "history, also in our country, has always punished those who consciously violated human dignity."
