German Minister called for a political boycott of Euro 2012 in Ukraine

The Minister of Environment of Germany, a member of the conservative Christian Democratic Union Norbert Rettgen called for a political boycott of Euro 2012 in Ukraine because of the imprisonment of Yulia Tymoshenko. The German politician said about it in an interview with Bild, published on Monday, says Ukrinform.

 "It is necessary to prevent Ukrainian regime using the European Championship to strengthen its dictatorship. Therefore, in my opinion, the visits of Ministers on the European Championship shouldn’t be even discussed at the moment", – said N. Rettgen. He once again stressed on the need for the liberation of Yulia Tymoshenko.

Norbert Rettgen became the first representative of the Government of Germany, who has officially called for a political boycott of the Euro 2012 in Ukraine. Previously, those were the German opposition leaders, including the head of the Social Democratic Party of Germany, Sigmar Gabriel and the leader of the "Green" Claudia Roth, who called the government officials for not going to Ukraine to see football matches because of the imprisonment of Tymoshenko. According to the weekly Spiegel, the Chancellor Angela Merkel is also considering doing the same step.