German Green Party members have demanded protective measures for German football fans attending the upcoming World Cup, citing ongoing violence in Minnesota and stricter U.S. immigration rules. Green human‑rights politician Boris Mijatovic said that a boycott by German officials could be part of a protest against President Trump’s policies. He argued that, given the tightened visa requirements and the increasingly hard‑line stance of U.S. security and immigration agencies, fans’ concerns are justified. The government must urgently present a credible strategy for the safety of German fans and officials during travel and stay, he added, calling for clear travel and security advice, accessible consular services, transparent information, and solid agreements with the relevant authorities.
Linke MP Sören Pellmann also expressed worry, stating that the situation in the United States has reached a point where he could not, with a clear conscience, say a trip would be safe. Pellmann noted that U.S. immigration officials are currently deporting American citizens and that officers are “not reliably assessing who they arrest and sometimes keep them in deportation prisons for months”. “A passport offers no protection” he said, reinforcing that there is indeed cause for concern for all who travel.
Mijatovic added that a political boycott might accompany a broader strategy to confront Trump, suggesting that the absence of German government representatives at the U.S. matches could be a component of that plan. Nevertheless, the Union faction of the Greens opposed a boycott. Their sports‑policy spokesperson, Stephan Mayer, told reporters that a World‑Cup boycott would not lead to fundamental policy change and would rather hurt players and millions of fans eager for the event. He argued that politics already has many suitable tools to criticize the U.S. government, and that a World‑Cup boycott is definitely not one of them.