BERLIN (AP) — A German official is criticizing representatives of Romania's governing party for engaging in "a campaign of defamation" against the southeastern European country's German minority.

Bernd Fabritius, a German lawmaker who was born in Romania, said in a statement late Wednesday that the defamation had recently reached "a new peak." He cited a Facebook post by Romania's former finance minister, Darius Valcov, which showed the country's ethnic German President Klaus Iohannis with a Hitler-style moustache.

Fabritius, who was appointed by the German government to represent the interests of German minorities in eastern Europe, said he had written directly to Romanian Prime Minister Viorica Dancila, urging her to distance herself from the "collective insults" by her government or Social Democratic party.