BERLIN (AP) – A Senegal-born chemist has become Germany’s first black federal lawmaker, and a woman of Turkish origin has become the first Muslim elected to Parliament from Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative party, officials said on Monday.
Senegalese-born German politician Karamba Diaby of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) attends a cross-cultural festival in downtown Halle, eastern Germany, on Sept 23, 2013, a day after the German general elections. Mr Diaby a Senegal-born chemist has become Germany’s first black federal lawmaker, and a woman of Turkish origin has become the first Muslim elected to Parliament from Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative party, officials said on Monday, Sept 23, 2013 — PHOTO: AFP
Although nearly one in five of Germany’s 80 million people are immigrants or the children or grandchildren of immigrants, relatively few have made it into the federal legislature.
Until now there were no black lawmakers in Parliament, despite more than 500,000 people of recent African origin believed to be living in Germany.
“My election into the German Parliament is of historical importance,” said Mr Karamba Diaby, 51, who moved to the city of Halle in 1986 after receiving a scholarship to study in communist East Germany.
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