– The way in which the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky was presented in a caricature in the newspaper “Süddeutsche Zeitung” provokes anti-Semitic stereotypes in many people. This is unacceptable, believes the Bavarian Commissioner for Anti-Semitism, Ludwig Spinel.
The Bavarian government’s commissioner for Jewish life and combating anti-Semitism, Ludwig Spinel, has criticized the Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper over a controversial cartoon depicting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as an oversized figure at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
Spinel said Friday in Munich that caricature is a special form of artistic expression and creativity – and there should be a great deal of freedom.
– However, I think that this caricature is a bad distortion of the President of Ukraine – and this is unacceptable from my point of view
– said the commissioner, citing the Welt daily.
Disgusting anti-Semitic illustration by Sueddeutsche Zeitung, SZ. I spent some time to understand who is depicted here (a serial killer? Fat mafia? A Jewish-Masonic conspiracy?) Suddenly people opened my eyes: this is a sarcastic statement by the distorted President Zelensky. Tweet embed pic.twitter.com/0U2zY99F7V
– Volodymyr Yermolenko (@yermolenko_v) May 27 2022
The format of the show in many people provokes anti-Semitic stereotypes that are far from reality. The Ukrainian president has Jewish roots. Spinley stressed that the whole thing concerned him personally because he appreciated the newspaper’s information about anti-Semitic trends, incidents and crimes.
– Numerous online voices have voiced similar criticism before, in some cases referring to past caricatures in the newspaper
– He mentions “Welt”.
The Sueddeutsche Zeitung responded via Twitter: “This caricature is a graphic rendering of Monday’s TV images: Ukraine’s president on video screen, in XXL format, in front of an audience in Davos. It shows how dominant Ukraine is there.”
Source: niezalezna.pl, pap
