Heidi Reichinnek’s speech went viral on TikTok – and sparked a surge of support from voters who reject the mainstream’s xenophobia

I was shopping for groceries the other day in Berlin’s neglected northern outskirts, when I remembered a joke. A banker, a social welfare recipient and an asylum seeker are sitting at a table. There are 12 cookies in front of them. The banker takes 11 cookies and says to the social welfare recipient: “Watch out, the refugee wants your cookie.”

It came back to me as I witnessed a young white mother completely losing it at the checkout. At first I thought it was the prices that had caused her fury, though there was no indication of that; I was probably just projecting my own anxieties about money on to the woman’s tantrum. It took me a moment to realise that she was accusing another woman, also a mother but not white, of standing in her way on purpose. She shouted that this was her country and we should all step out of her way and that soon we would see. Two people told her to be quiet and one older woman went to calm her down, but there was no chance. The young white mother chose to stay loud and angry, and she knew exactly at whom.

Fatma Aydemir is a Berlin-based author, novelist, playwright and a Guardian Europe columnist