Germany summons Zim envoy over Merkel 'Nazi remnant' slur

Germany summons Zim envoy over Merkel 'Nazi remnant' slur

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GERMANY on Tuesday summoned Zimbabwe's envoy to Berlin after a government minister attacked Chancellor Angela Merkel as a "fascist", the foreign ministry said.

Spokesman Martin Jaeger told a regular government news conference that Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier had called the charge d'affaires to the ministry over the tirade against Merkel.

"It was made extremely clear to him that the remarks from Zimbabwe made about the chancellor were in no way acceptable," he said.

Jaeger said the charge d'affaires had been summoned because Zimbabwe's ambassador to Germany, Cuthbert Zhakata, was not in Berlin.

Zimbabwean Information Minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu was quoted Monday as calling Merkel a "racist" and a "fascist" after she took his country to task for human rights violations at an EU-Africa summit at the weekend.

Ndlovu was quoted by the state-run Herald newspaper as saying: "She should shut up on Zimbabwe or ship out.

"Zimbabwe is not a colony of Germany. This is racism of the first order by the German head of state."

A German government spokesman said Monday that Merkel had spoken on behalf of the entire European Union.

Although normally banned from the EU for allegedly rigging his 2002 re-election, Mugabe received the full red-carpet treatment Saturday at the summit in Lisbon.

It was the first such summit in seven years, after a previous one was cancelled in 2003 over Mugabe's planned attendance. - AFP

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