Alexander Müller, a Zurich politician from the far-right Swiss People’s Party has caused outrage by appearing to call for “another Kristallnacht” in a hateful anti-Islamic tweet.
The offending message, which has since been taken down from Müller’s @DailyTalk account, said: “Maybe we need another Kristallnacht… this time for mosques.”
Kristallnacht, or the Night of the Broken Glass, refers to the night in November 1938 when the Nazis burned down Jewish synagogues, houses and shops in a coordinated attack across Germany and parts of Austria.
Over 7,000 shops were destroyed and an estimated 30,000 people were arrested and put into concentration camps. Figures vary as to how many people were killed.
The Zurich prosecutor is considering whether to launch a formal criminal investigation into Müller, who also works as a school nurse.
“It is possible that the Twitter post breached the criminal provisions on racism,” Corinne Bouvard, spokeswoman for the Zurich prosecutor’s office, told the website.
The Young Greens have also called for Müller’s immediate resignation from his position as school nurse.
Müller denies writing the post, and has alleged that someone forged it, newspaper Tages Anzeiger reported.
In other tweets, he has previously been seen to make fun of beauty contests in Saudi Arabia, voiced his opposition to integration and the “Islamization” of the country, and accused Muslims of trying to litter the country with mosques and minarets.
Should he be found to have written the tweet, he will be excluded from the Swiss People’s Party.
“Such a statement constitutes grounds for exclusion,” party president Roger Liebi told the website.