Henriette Reker

Henriette Reker
Mayor of Cologne
Assumed office
2015
Personal details
Born (1956-12-09) December 9, 1956
Cologne, West Germany

Henriette Reker (born 9 December 1956) is a German lawyer and independent politician. She is known for her pro-immigration stance and for being the victim of an assassination attempt in 2015. A day after the attack, Reker was elected mayor of Cologne after gaining 52.66% of the votes.[1] She is the first female mayor elected in Cologne's history.

Biography

Political career

Born in Cologne, Reker has been mayoral deputy of Gelsenkirchen since 2000, when in 2010 she was appointed a mayoral deputy for social affairs, integration and the environment of the city of Cologne. Supported by the CDU, FDP, and The Greens she ran for Mayor of Cologne in October 2015.[2]

Assassination attempt

Crime scene of the attack on Reker

At a public event on 17 October 2015, the day before the mayoral election, Reker was seriously wounded when a 44-year-old man stabbed her in the neck with a knife,[3] while shouting about an "influx of refugees".[4] State prosecutors confirmed the attack to be politically motivated,[5] after the perpetrator “confessed to having xenophobic motives.” As a member of Cologne's municipal administration, Reker had been responsible for the housing and integration of refugees.[4] Her aide was also hurt in the attack, as were three other people who had tried to subdue her attacker.[6] Reker's main rival in the mayoral election, Social Democrat Jochen Ott, suspended his campaign after the attack.[6] Reker won the election while remaining in the intensive care unit of a local hospital.

Federal prosecutors soon took over the case from state prosecutors in Cologne on grounds of the particularly dangerous nature of the stabbing, which came against the backdrop of a rising tide of attacks on accommodation for refugees in Germany. By late October, they charged a 44-year-old German man with attempted murder and dangerous bodily harm. At the time, the authorities said the perpetrator was driven by his anger over Reker’s work on the refugee issue.[7]

New Year's Eve sexual assaults on women

Reker was accused of victim blaming following the attacks at Cologne's 2016 New Year's Eve celebrations. She claimed that “there’s always the possibility of keeping a certain distance of more than an arm’s length – that is to say to make sure yourself you don’t look to be too close to people who are not known to you, and to whom you don’t have a trusting relationship.”[8][9] Reker was condemned by Lodewijk Asscher, Deputy Prime Minister of the Netherlands, for implying that women could have prevented the attacks against themselves.[10] Henriette Reker accused the media of taking her comments out of context. She claimed she only reacted to a reporter's question by quoting an existing communal guideline for safety during partying in a speech.[11]

Other activities

References

  1. ↑ City of Cologne: Oberbuergermeisterwahl, retrieved 19 October 2015
  2. ↑ "Die Frau, die an ihrer Stadt leidet" in Die Welt, 17 October 2015
  3. ↑ "Cologne mayoral candidate Henriette Reker seriously hurt in knife attack". Deutsche Welle. 17 October 2015. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
  4. 1 2 Lizzie Dearden (17 October 2015). "German mayoral candidate Henriette Reker stabbed in neck by man 'shouting about refugees' in Cologne". The Independent. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
  5. ↑ "'Xenophobic' stabbing of Cologne mayoral candidate". Deutsche Welle. 17 October 2015. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
  6. 1 2 "German Mayoral Candidate Stabbed In Neck". Sky News. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
  7. ↑ Peter Wise (December 1, 2015) New York Times.
  8. ↑ HANNAH AL-OTHMAN. "Cologne Mayor accused of 'victim blaming' for comments after mass sex assaults". Evening Standard. Retrieved 7 January 2016.
  9. ↑ "Twitter storm as Cologne mayor suggests women stay at 'arm's length' from strangers". Deutsche Welle. 5 January 2015. Retrieved 5 January 2016.
  10. ↑ Pieters, Janene (6 January 2016). "DUTCH CABINET, MPS ANGERED BY COLOGNE MAYOR’S MASS SEX ASSAULT REMARKS". NL Times. Retrieved 10 January 2016.
  11. ↑ "Reker defends tips for women (German)". Retrieved 6 September 2016.
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