A German lawmaker has called for Donald Trump to be banned from entering the country, arguing that the Republican presidential candidate's comments on Muslims incite racial hatred.

Dieter Janecek, a member of Germany's Green Party, told the online version of Spiegel magazine that Trump's "rants of hate against minorities and refugees could constitute the criminal offence of incitement of hatred".

His comments come after Trump commented on a series of sexual assaults, allegedly carried out by Syrian refugees, which took place in the German city of Cologne on New Year's Eve.



Janecek was not immediately available to comment and his office was not able to confirm his comments to NBC, but the lawmaker retweeted the Spiegel Online article on his verified Twitter account.



In a tweet, Trump said Germany was going through "massive attacks to its people by the migrants allowed to enter their country". In a separate tweet he said Germany was a "total mess".



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A petition to ban Trump from entering Germany had been signed by 35,000 people by the time of publication, although it was unclear if those votes had been cast by individual German citizens.



Other politicians, including from Janecek's own party, told Spiegel Online they would not support an entry ban as it would only strengthen Trump's position when he should instead be ignored.

Trump last month suggested a controversial ban on Muslims entering the United States which has sparked outrage.