BERLIN, Aug. 30 (Xinhua) -- Right-wing populist Alternative for Germany (AfD) chancellor candidate Alexander Gauland has responded with defiance on Wednesday to a hate speech lawsuit over controversial remarks he made about German parliamentarian and state minister for migration Aydan Oezoguz (SPD).
"I think that a woman who says that a German culture cannot be identified beyond the language has no place in this country." Gauland told German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ).
He hereby defended a recent public suggestion that Oezoguz should be "disposed of" in Turkey which prompted widespread criticism in Germany. The AfD candidate went even further on Wednesday in FAZ, opining that the SPD-politician of Turkish descent "may have to find a different country."
"I do not want to call (the original wording) a mistake..." Gauland added, describing the outrage it caused as "ridiculous".
SPD leader and chancellor candidate Martin Schulz had blasted Gauland as the "AfD racist agitator-in-chief" in response, while Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) said that the statement was "racist and absolutely condemnable."
Merkel further took Gauland's comments as an opportunity to criticize CDU delegates in the regional assembly of Saxony-Anhalt for voting in favor of a AfD proposal as "politically wrong." The CDU leader has repeatedly ruled out any form of legislative cooperation with the AfD.
In the meanwhile, the former federal judge Thomas Fischer launched a lawsuit against Gauland for racist incitement.
The abuse hurled at Oezoguz was "obviously directed solely at the ethnicity of the affected person," German news website Spiegel online cited the suit.
The judicial proceedings against the AfD candidate come as his party has become increasingly engulfed by scandals less than a month before German national elections.
The Parliament of Saxony revoked AfD leader Frauke Petry's immunity on Tuesday, paving the way to legal action against her over accusations of perjury. On the same day, the AfD was reported to have handed out pepper sprays at election rallies in Rhineland-Palatinate, with a local mayor describing the initiative as "morally unacceptable."
