After a supermarket owner in Germany complained of thousands of euros of merchandise being stolen from his shop by asylum seekers every month, a left-wing MP seemed to defend the thefts, noting that the acronym for the supermarket chain involved the word ‘colonial.’
Konstantin Gatzke, the owner of an EDEKA supermarket in Regensburg, claimed that thieves living in a nearby asylum home had been stealing items every day by just grabbing the items and simply leaving his shop, stealing as much as 12,500 euros worth of merchandise per month, the newspaper Bild reports.
“Every day men dressed in black come to us, all from the asylum dormitories in Regensburg. Fill up backpacks and bags, and go out through the entrance without paying!” Gatzke said in a social media post.
In one case, a thief was stopped with 140 euros worth of products in two bags, including bottles of alcohol. “Further down in the bag were more spirits: vodka and liqueurs again. They are Muslims—did they want to resell the alcohol?” Gatzke said.
The story caught the attention of Left Party MP Ferat Koçak, who took to X, formerly known as Twitter, to seemingly defend the actions of the thieves.
He wrote:
EDEKA is the abbreviation for “Colonial Commodity Traders’ Purchasing Cooperative”: I would say that people get back what is rightfully theirs. But it’s not that simple to explain.
One of the central problems is that the authorities are overburdened and many exiles do not even receive what they need to live. And that, too, is secondary. It is more important to immediately grant a work permit to those fleeing so that they can earn a living independently.
Konstantin Gatzke has also stated that he received threats from far-left extremists because of his social media post about the thefts, and later deleted the post as a result.
“I don’t want to offer anyone, whether right-wing or left-wing, a platform for agitation. I was only interested in the thefts,” he said and added, “I don’t want to be put in the right corner. I have an immigrant background myself, employ employees from different countries and have no prejudices!”
