Düsseldorf (dpa / lnw) – North Rhine-Westphalia’s Minister of Integration Josefine Paul (Greens) has defended the new registration offices for racism and queer hostility against criticism. It was a misunderstanding that this would encourage denunciation, said the Green Party in Düsseldorf on Friday.
At the beginning of the month, the new minister announced that she would set up four reporting offices that would look at anti-queerism and discrimination against other sexual orientations, as well as antiziganism, anti-Muslim and other forms of racism. The first state-wide reporting office for anti-Semitic incidents in North Rhine-Westphalia had already started work in April.
The planned registration offices have met with sharp rejection from the arch-conservative union of values, among others. NRW state and deputy federal chairwoman Simone Baum criticized this week: “I never would have thought that a CDU-led state government would borrow from the state security service and that the GDR’s Stasi spy system could serve as a role model for them. “
Paul countered that no personal data at all was stored in the registration offices. They are only a contact point for those affected. “Of course, personal reports must continue to be made to the police,” said the minister. “A lot of things that are incredibly hurtful to those affected are below the criminal justice line.
It is about getting an overview of the situation and being able to prevent it in a more targeted manner. Only verifiable cases would be included in the anonymous statistics – without personal data. This is an addition to the reporting offices for anti-Semitic incidents, which are supported by a broad political consensus and already exist in numerous federal states and at federal level.
In NRW, the new registration offices are scheduled to start work in mid-2023. The black-green state government is providing 140,000 euros each for the development of the four positions.
