Swiss politician faces expulsion for Hitler comments
“I believe that today’s historical view of Hitler is rather one-sided”, said Keller, and that he “didn’t just see an evil tyrant and dictator” in him.
Keystone
A politician who complained about a “one-sided” historical view of Adolf Hitler faces removal by the national party leadership.
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In a tweet which has since been deleted, the centre-right Conservative Democratic Party politician Thomas Keller said that Hitler “can’t have been that infinitely bad”.
Keller is the former president of the young wing of the party in his local canton of Thurgau.
The Twitter spat occurred during an online discussion about a policeman from southern Switzerland who had been promoted despite his admiration of the German dictator.
“I believe that today’s historical view of Hitler is rather one-sided”, said Keller, and that he “didn’t just see an evil tyrant and dictator” in him.
He also said that all the nations who were involved in the war had “blood on their hands”.
His party reacted by condemning the comments and by starting proceedings on Tuesday to expel Keller from the party.
Party chief Martin Landolt told the German language newspaper Blick that he was “outraged” by Keller’s “abominable” comments.
Landolt made waves himself in 2016 when he tweeted a picture of a Swiss cross converted into a swastika.
Thomas Keller has since apologised for his remarks. In an interviewExternal link with the Tages-Anzeiger newspaper he said that he was “clearly against racism and glorifying anything to do with abusing power including guiding a people towards slaughtering others”.
He regretted making the “politically very, very dangerous” tweet and said he had been completely overwhelmed by the reaction because he had underestimated the potential of social media.
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