German designer Karl Lagerfeld appears at the end of his Spring/Summer 2018 women's ready-to-wear collection show for fashion house Chanel at the Grand Palais during Paris Fashion Week, France, October 3, 2017. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes - RC18298D3B00
Fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld is being investigated by French broadcasting watchdogs after some comments he made about immigrants being welcomed in Germany got him in hot water with viewers.
The artist, fashion designer and photographer appeared on the Saturday night talk show in France titled, “Salut Les Terriens” (“Hi, Earthlings”), and discussed German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s decision to open her country’s borders to Syrian refugees and immigrants.
“You cannot kill millions of Jews and then take in millions of their worst enemies afterwards, even if there are decades [between the two events],” he said on the talk show, per The Times U.K.
The German-born designer apparently took issue with Merkel’s policy of allowing more than one million asylum within the country since the migrant crisis of 2015.
“Merkel had already millions and millions (of immigrants) who are well integrated and who work and all is well,” he said on the show, per The Guardian. “She had no need to take another million to improve her image as the wicked stepmother after the Greek crisis.”
Lagerfeld, who typically drapes himself in controversy, now has caught the attention of the country’s Higher Audiovisual Council, which says it will investigate the situation as well as the production of “Salut les Terriens” in full before deciding whether or not to take action.
Early reports indicate that the organization got involved after the station received upwards of 700 complaints about Lagerfeld’s comments, deeming them insensitive to Holocaust survivors, their families as well as immigrants who have come to Germany since 2015.
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