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A demonstrator at the Stuttgart »lateral thinking» demonstration from May 2020
Photo: Arnulf Hettrich / imago images / Arnulf Hettrich
On Saturday, the "lateral thinking" group in Stuttgart wants to protest against the federal government's pandemic restrictions.
Actors of the scene advertise the protest extensively on the Internet, and they pass it off as the slogan "We will win".
The Baden-Württemberg Ministry of Health would like to prevent the demonstrations - but the city of Stuttgart sees no way for a ban.
"The bar for a ban on gatherings is very high," said Clemens Maier, mayor of Stuttgart who is responsible for security, order and sport.
"We cannot legally do anything against this meeting and only have the option to work subject to conditions." If these are not observed, however, the meeting will be dissolved.
City and country shift responsibility to one another
The ministry says, however, that the Corona regulation is definitely a ban.
"My prognosis is that the hygiene rules will not be adhered to at the event," said Ministerial Director Uwe Lahl.
He had expressed his concerns in a letter to Maier.
Accordingly, there are high hurdles for a complete ban on gatherings as the last measure, "but such a ban is not excluded from the outset due to the Corona Regulation," Lahl explained in the letter.
Maier said that he would have wished that there were rules for such gatherings as there are for religious services.
According to an ordinance of the Ministry of Culture, outdoor events are only allowed with a maximum of 500 people.
If there were such a regulation from the Ministry of Social Affairs, "then we as a city would be out of the obligation to justify a ban".
The city would rather that the meeting take place in one place than that the participants move uncontrollably around the city.
According to the city of Stuttgart, at least four demonstrations against the pandemic restrictions are planned, including a rally by the "lateral thinkers" on the Cannstatter Wasen, an area on the banks of the Neckar.
The organizers are expecting around 2500 participants for this protest.
According to a police spokesman, counter-demonstrators are also expected.
Home of the "lateral thinkers"
Police President Franz Lutz explained: "The area of tension between guaranteeing the freedom to demonstrate and the right to gather in large numbers on the one hand, and the restrictions for every citizen on the other hand, cannot be resolved by the police on such occasions." strictly check.
Stuttgart is the center of the "lateral thinkers", founded by entrepreneur Michael Ballweg as a group that is as broad as possible against the government's corona measures.
Moderate critics initially demonstrated side by side with "Reich citizens", esotericists and supporters of conspiracy myths.
In the meantime, the rallies are almost exclusively dominated by radicals; the Office for the Protection of the Constitution is observing individual groups, for example in Hamburg.
The authorities attribute several important actors to the milieu of the "Reichsbürger" and so-called self-administrators who negate democratic and constitutional structures and deny the existence of the Federal Republic.
mrc / dpa