No reception for the Dalai Lama

The paper discusses the Dalai Lama's visit to Germany, and the fact that the Tibetan spiritual leader will not meet any of the country's top politicians. Although he did meet Roland Koch, premier of the state of Hesse at Frankfurt airport, "one would have expected Germany's political elite to show solidarity with the Dalai Lama on such an occasion. ... But that is not how the German government sees things. ... Not a single top leader has time for him. ... Steinmeier, the Social Democratic Foreign Minister , has indicated he has 20 minutes to exchange a few words, but he has refused to receive the Dalai Lama officially. ... This in spite of the fact that the Social Democrats have championed human rights throughout their history, which goes back over 100 years. They have abandoned the struggle for human rights to the Christian Democrats. Berlin is not willing to risk angering the Chinese once again. This is clear from the aloofness of the Social Democrats."

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