the times | Wednesday January 19 2022 31
Wo r l d
Politically motivated crime hit a record
high in Germany last year, driven by a
substantial increase in “uncategorised”
offences as radical Covid-19 protesters
entered the country’s extremist scene.
The number of crimes with a
“political” element, including inciting
hatred of minorities and planning acts
of terrorism, has been rising for a
decade. Last year such crimes grew by
6 per cent to 47,303, according to
figures issued by the German interior
ministry.
For the first time since the 2015
migration crisis, offences ascribed to
the far right made up less than half the
total, whereas the number that could
not be attributed to a particular ideolo-
gy doubled in the space of a year, from
8,600 to more than 17,000.
The preliminary figures, released in
response to a parliamentary question
Jean-Paul Guerlain, who is suffering with dementia, and his partner Christina Kragh
Michelsen. She is embroiled in a legal dispute with his son, Stéphane Guerlain, leftBERTRAND RINDOFF PETROFF/GETTY IMAGES; BEST IMAGE/BACKGRIDMinister in
hot water for
laying down
law from Ibiza
Charles BremnerThe son of Jean-Paul Guerlain, the last
generation of the family to head the il-
lustrious French perfume house bear-
ing their name, has been accused of
making death threats and attempting
to run over his father’s companion.
Stéphane Guerlain, 61, is in a long-
running legal feud with Christina
Kragh Michelsen, 62, a Franco-Danish
racehorse owner, whom he accuses of
trying to purloin his ailing father’s
wealth.
Jean-Paul Guerlain, 85, the creator of
Chamade, Jardins de Bagatelle and
other hit perfumes, retired in 2002
from the family company, which was
founded in 1828 and has been owned
since 1994 by the LVMH group. He is
suffering from dementia.
Kragh, who has been prevented by a
judge at the son’s request from marry-
ing Guerlain because of his mental
state, initiated a prosecution after being
acquitted by a court in
Versailles in October of mis-
treating the retired maître
parfumeur, with whom she
has lived for 16 years.
Versailles prosecutors
have now opened an at-
tempted murder investi-
gation in response to a
complaint by Kragh
to police last month
that Guerlain fils,
who is a Paris lawyer,
tried to run her over
in November near
the Guerlains’ coun-
try house at Mesnuls,
in the Rambouillet forest
on the southwestern
Paris outskirts.
This week’s court ses-
sion in Versailles was
triggered by a recording
Kragh handed to police,
purporting to be of a tirade
Perfume mogul’s
lover accuses
his son of trying
to run her over
against her by Guerlain when he visited
the Mesnuls house in the autumn.
Guerlain, who has had legal custody of
his father since 2018, is accused of
“wilful violence, moral harassment and
making death threats”.
In the 40-minute rant the voice iden-
tified as that of the younger Guerlain
accuses Kragh of trying to isolate his
father as part of a scheme to take his
money, which is part of a family fortune
estimated at €3 billion.
“You are living with an old gentle-
man. You are waiting to install yourself
here as Madame Guerlain,” the voice
says. “I am going to slam you against a
wall. I’m going to shove your head into
a hay bale... I want to give you a big, fat
slap... It would be such a pleasure.
“You’re just a whore... As long as I’m
alive, you will not be married.”
Olivier Combe, a lawyer acting for
Stéphane Guerlain, accused Kragh of
trying to manipulate the law to deprive
the son of his role of legal guardian of
his ailing father. The son is “the last ob-
stacle” in her path to the Guerlain for-
tune, he told Le Figaro newspaper.
Kragh’s lawyer, Frédéric Bélot, has in
turn accused Stéphane
Guerlain of cutting off the
heating, sacking the staff
and other acts in the
Mesnuls house aimed at
driving out his client. “The
house is in a deplorable
state,” he told Le
Figaro.
Kragh was stay-
ing with Jean-Paul
Guerlain purely
to take care of
him, the lawyer
said. “She is not
there out of self-
interest, but out
of loyalty,” he
added.
In Kragh’s
trial in the
autumn for“abandoning a person unable to protect
himself”, the prosecutor accused her of
neglecting the perfumer and making
him live in conditions of near squalor.
The former “nose of Paris”, as he was
known, had been found in a pitiful state,
deprived of “care, food and basic hy-
giene”, the prosecutor said.
In their acquittal the judges said
Kragh had prevented Guerlain fromA four-year-old Belgian boy has been
found dead after apparently being
abducted by his “cuddly uncle” baby-
sitter, who turned out to have a convic-
tion for killing a boy aged two.
The body of Dean Verberckmoes was
found on the Dutch Zeeland coast late
on Monday after the arrest of Dave De
Kock, 34. Police had been looking for
him since he failed to return the child to
his mother last week.
The suspect appears to have
“groomed” the mother, Elke Ver-
berckmoes, 39, and regularly babysat or
looked after Dean when she was receiv-
ing treatment for depression.
De Kock led police to the body
hidden near a theme park on Neeltje
Jans, a man-made island. According toBabysitter held over boy’s
death had killed before
police sources, the suspect, who had a
record of drug use, was intoxicated.
“Dave would take care of my son,
which he did every Wednesday. They
got along very well and Dean consid-
ered him something of a cuddly uncle.
There was no indication that he had
other plans this time,” the mother said
yesterday.
De Kock was convicted 11 years ago
of “inhumane acts resulting in the
death” of Miguel Van Kriekinge, aged
two, in 2008.
The case has raised questions about
how De Kock was able to disappear off
the radar of the authorities after his re-
lease in 2020 from a ten-year sentence.
Vincent Van Quickenborne, Belgi-
um’s justice minister, said a law allowing
judges to order the surveillance of
dangerous offenders after prison had
come too late to apply to De Kock.‘Enemies of the state’ threaten Germany
by an MP from the right-wing populist
Alternative for Germany (AfD) party,
may slightly understate the scale of the
problem. However, they appear to re-
flect the complex melting pot of polit-
ical dogmas behind the protest move-
ment against the government’s pan-
demic restrictions, which include plans
to require all adults to be vaccinated.
The authorities are worried that the
extreme right and elements in the AfD
are trying to stir up this resentment for
their own purposes.
Some of the anti-lockdown demon-
strations have degenerated into vio-
lence, including an attempt to storm
the Bundestag in August 2020 and a
recent torch-lit demonstration outside
the home of a regional health minister.
The Office for the Protection of the
Constitution (BfV) has warned of the
emergence of a new movement of
“enemies of the state” who had been
riled by the Covid-19 restrictions.
Several protests have featuredantisemitic rhetoric and notorious
figures from the extreme right, but they
are also supported by radical left-wing
groups and a potpourri of disaffected
Germans who mistrust evidence-based
medicine and the modern state.
Last weekend Thomas Haldenwang,
61, the BfV’s president, said the far right
was attempting to hijack this tendency
but added that the protest movement
was “extremely heterogeneous” in its
political make-up.
“They are united by contempt for the
democratic state, the rule of law and its
representatives,” Haldenwang told the
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.
“Primarily [these demonstrations]
involve citizens who are peacefully
making use of their right to protest.
This protest is completely legitimate.
But we have also seen that people are
being provoked to open resistance
against the state at this kind of demon-
stration. This is the place where
extremism begins.”Germany
Oliver Moody Berlin
Belgium
Bruno Waterfield Brusselsreceiving medical care but there was no
proof she had abandoned him.
In her new allegation of attempted
murder by the son, Kragh told the gen-
darmerie he drove his car at her and she
escaped only by throwing herself into
the bushes. Asked why she had no inju-
ries, Kragh said she had been protected
by a coat. The judges are expected to
rule on the death threat case in weeks.France
Charles Bremner Paris
The French education minister faced
opposition calls to resign yesterday
after it emerged that he had announced
tough new Covid-19 restrictions for
schools while on holiday in Ibiza.
Jean-Michel Blanquer, a pillar of
President Macron’s administration,
said he “regretted the symbolism” of his
Christmas week holiday destination.
However, the half-apology did nothing
to appease teachers’ unions, who staged
a one-day strike last week over the new
rules. They have called for a second
walkout tomorrow.
The rules forced thousands of classes
to close, and pupils had to wait in long
queues outside pharmacies and labora-
tories for tests.
The teachers were already angry that
Blanquer, 57, had announced stricter
testing and isolation rules in a video
interview on January 2 with Le Parisien
newspaper hours before classes were to
resume after the Christmas break.
No mention was made of his where-
abouts until the Mediapart news web-
site reported on Monday that he had
been on the Spanish island known for
partying.
Eighty days from the first round of
the presidential election, the episode
has embarrassed Macron’s team, which
has been struggling to quell unhappi-
ness over the government’s handling of
the pandemic in schools.
SNU-FSU, the biggest primary
teachers’ union, said: “It’s terrible — it
deepens the chasm that already existed
between the minister and staff. He is no
longer worthy of his post.”
Anne Hidalgo, the Socialist candi-
date and mayor of Paris, said Macron
was responsible for Blanquer’s conduct.
“I hope the French will draw their con-
clusions when it comes to the presiden-
tial election,” she said.
Gabriel Attal, the government
spokesman, said Blanquer had been
working remotely in compliance with
cabinet orders. However, it emerged
that Nicolas Revel, the prime minister’s
chief of staff, had advised Blanquer not
to go to Ibiza because of his role in man-
aging the pandemic. Macron is thought
unlikely to replace Blanquer, who im-
plemented educational reforms Ma-
cron promised in his 2017 manifesto.