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Parade of the neo-Nazi party »III.
Path"
Photo: Sebastian Willnow / picture alliance / dpa
When the repulsive election posters appeared in Zwickau, the city's green candidate for the Bundestag heard about it very quickly.
On Monday morning, says Wolfgang Wetzel, "several messages and photos" were sent to him.
Election posters were to be seen on the pictures, in green letters on a white background it read "Vote German".
And, even bigger: “Hang the Greens.” The right-wing extremist splinter party “III.
Path".
He wasn't shocked, said Wetzel, on the phone. It felt familiar in a strange way: "This is not my first encounter with this militant neo-Nazi party." Even before his time in politics - Wetzel headed Caritas' alcohol and drug counseling in the city - were stickers turned up both at his home and at his place of work. At the time, Wetzel interpreted this as a message that was supposed to tell him: We know where you live and what you do. The newly emerged posters, one of which was hanging directly in front of the Greens' constituency office in Zwickau, are also a message for Wetzel, a means of intimidation: "Be quiet, think about what you are saying."
The public prosecutor apparently does not consider the posters to be criminally relevant. The authority said on request that the initiation of an investigation was refrained from. And will stick with it. "The impression of seriousness is missing," said a spokeswoman. No concrete action would be threatened, no time, no place and no sacrifice mentioned.
Who, the justice spokeswoman asks, are "the Greens?" Are they party members, politicians or people with an ecological orientation? «Since the public prosecutor couldn't find an answer to this question, among other things, the posters were initially able to hang up. The Zwickau public prosecutor's office noticed that other public prosecutors, such as the one in Munich, decided differently and recognized that the posters were disturbing the public peace through threats of criminal offenses. It is said that one cannot comment on the reasons given by other authorities.
The city of Zwickau finally issued an "disposal order" on Wednesday lunchtime. The reason given is that there is a "violation of public order and of decency and human dignity". The decision is an »immediate ruling with a maximum of three days from the delivery of the corresponding notification«. What does that mean that the »III. Weg «has three days to remove the posters. If that doesn't happen, the city of Zwickau will take care of it. You could charge the party for the removal of the posters.
Bundestag candidate Wetzel says he doesn't want a victim story. He wonders, however, whether society in the region can "take one step" forward together. The excitement is there, supra-regional reports are being made about Saxony again, the impression is that there is a “fertile climate for right-wing extremist attitudes” in the Free State. And in the region itself, people would say to themselves: "Now people from the outside are talking badly about us again." It is, says Wetzel, very simple: "Just take responsibility for what happens here." Bavaria is also not a leftist Eldorado, but the posters were simply removed there.
At the request of SPIEGEL, the Saxon Justice Minister Katja Meier (Greens) announced that the posters testified to “cynical contempt for human beings and exceeded the boundaries of the political discourse of opinion”.
The public prosecutor's office is responsible for assessing the criminal law relevance of the posters.
However, your house requested a legal assessment report.
It is regrettable that the posters are still allowed to hang for three days.
The Green Wetzel sees it differently: "Normally nothing would have happened here."
tgk
