FRANKFURT: The German city of Frankfurt switched on festive lights Sunday to celebrate the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, in what local media said was a nationwide first.
A large sign reading “Happy Ramadan” and a display of lights in the shape of stars, lanterns and crescent moons were formally unveiled in an evening ceremony, illuminating a pedestrianized street in the city center lined with restaurants and cafes.
Local officials and German media said it was the first time a German city had put up street illuminations for Ramadan.
Mayor Nargess Eskandari-Gruenberg called it a “beautiful gesture” that stood for “the peaceful co-existence of all people in Frankfurt.”
“In times of crises and wars, this lighting is a sign of hope for all people and strengthens cohesion in our diverse urban society,” she said in a statement earlier this week.
The western city of Frankfurt, Germany’s financial hub with a population of more than 750,000 people, is home to around 100,000 Muslims.
The Ramadan lights reportedly cost the city at least 75,000 euros ($82,000).
Ramadan street decorations were also on display in the city of Cologne for the first time, Bild newspaper reported, though those were financed by private donations rather than public funds.
The Frankfurt branch of the Coordinating Council of Muslims welcomed the street lights as a sign of “appreciation and recognition of the cultural and religious diversity of our international city.”
But not all the reactions were positive.
Robert Lambrou, a regional lawmaker from Hesse whose far-right AfD party has been riding high in opinion polls, condemned the Ramadan decorations as a “gesture of submission to Islam.”
The idea to hang the lights came from city councillor Omar Shehata, from Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democratic Party. Shehata told the Frankfurter Allgemeine newspaper he had been inspired by London, which last year lit up for Ramadan for the first time.
Responding to the AfD’s criticism, he said: “Many people in Frankfurt stand united against right-wing extremism, anti-Semitism and anti-Muslim racism.”
Frankfurt lights up for Ramadan in first for Germany
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Frankfurt lights up for Ramadan in first for Germany
- Large sign reading “Happy Ramadan” and a display of lights in the shape of stars, lanterns and crescent moons were formally unveiled in an evening ceremony
France provided ‘logistical’ support to help Benin thwart coup: Macron aide
- Macron led a “coordination effort” by speaking with key regional leaders
- The situation in Benin “caused serious concern for the president (Macron) ,” said the aide
PARIS: France provided logistical support and surveillance assistance to help the west African state of Benin thwart a coup attempt that was foiled at the weekend, an aide to President Emmanuel Macron said Tuesday.
Macron led a “coordination effort” by speaking with key regional leaders, while France — at the request of the Beninese authorities — provided assistance “in terms of surveillance, observation and logistical support” to the Benin armed forces, the aide, asking not to be named, told reporters.
Further details on the nature of the assistance were not immediately available.
A group of soldiers on Sunday took over the national television station and announced that President Patrice Talon had been deposed.
But loyalist army forces ultimately defeated the attempted putsch with the help of neighboring Nigeria, which carried out military strikes on Cotonou and deployed troops.
West Africa has endured a sequence of coups in the last years that have severely eroded French influence and presence in what were French colonies up until independence.
Mali saw coups in 2020 and 2021, followed by Burkina Faso in 2022 and then Niger in 2023. French forces that had been deployed in these countries for an anti-jihadist operation consequently pulled out.
A successful putsch in Benin, also a former French colony, would have been seen as a new blow to the standing of Paris and Macron in the region.
On Sunday, Macron spoke with Talon as well as the leaders of top regional power Nigeria, and Sierra Leone, which holds the presidency of West African regional bloc ECOWAS, the aide said.
The situation in Benin “caused serious concern for the president (Macron), who unequivocally condemned this attempt at destabilization, which fortunately failed,” said the aide.
ECOWAS has said troops from Ghana, Ivory Coast, Nigeria and Sierra Leone were being deployed to Benin to help the government “preserve constitutional order.”
The bloc had threatened intervention during Niger’s 2023 coup that deposed president Mohamed Bazoum — an ally of Macron — but ultimately did not act.
France also did not carry out any intervention against the Niger coup.
“France has offered its full political support to ECOWAS, which made a very significant effort this weekend,” said the aide.
