UPI: Leaders of Germany’s Christian Democratic Party say that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad should be barred from attending World Cup games. United Press International
BERLIN, April 18 (UPI) — Leaders of Germany’s Christian Democratic Party say that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad should be barred from attending World Cup games.
Wolfgang Bosbach, the CDU’s deputy floor leader in Parliament, urged the German government to take action, while Georg Brunnhuber, the party’s parliamentary spokesman, called on the governing body of soccer to make the call.
“It would be a welcome move if the government made clear through diplomatic channels that a visit to Germany by Ahmadinejad is undesirable,” Bosbach told the newspaper Welt am Sonntag.
Ahmadinejad has made a number of statements suggesting that the Holocaust was exaggerated or did not happen, most recently last Friday. Holocaust denial is a crime in Germany.
Iran is one of the countries competing in the World Cup, raising speculation in Germany that the Iranian president would want to watch the team play.
