International fashion icon Karl Lagerfeld has threatened to renounce his German citizenship after Chancellor Angela Merkel decided this week to allow more than 1 million migrants from the Middle East into the country.
“Did she [Merkel] really need to say it was necessary to welcome one million migrants at a time when France, which casts itself as the land of human rights, pledged to take in 30,000?” Lagerfeld told French weekly Le Point in an interview released Thursday.
“If this keeps up, I’ll abandon German citizenship,” Lagerfeld warned.
The designer reiterated older statements of support for French President Emmanuel Macron and first lady Brigitte Macron, but said he would prefer not to become a French national. Still, he warned that Merkel’s relaxed immigration policy is helping to foster far-right sentiments in Germany.
He said her immigration plans are only “alienating two million voters and sending 100 of these neo-Nazis into parliament.”
CORRECTION: The headline of this story has been updated to reflect that Lagerfeld is threatening to renounce his German citizenship, not leave Germany
