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Hamburg's Senator for the Interior Andy Grote
Photo: Chris Emil Janssen / imago images
The Hamburg "Pimmelgate" affair apparently has the consequence that Interior Senator Andy Grote is also hostile in his private sphere.
"When my wife comes home and finds that someone has left their excrement in front of our gate, that is a borderline thing," says Grote in an interview with "Die Zeit".
On May 30th, Grote criticized the celebrating crowds in Hamburg's Schanzenviertel on Twitter.
His message triggered numerous reactions.
For example that of a user with the pseudonym »ZooStPauli« who wrote under Grote's tweet: »You are so 1 dick.« Grote filed a criminal complaint.
A Hamburg district court later approved the search of an accused's apartment.
The raid drew criticism, Grote was further reviled as a "dick".
The dispute over the tweet has "escalated massively in the past few weeks, there has been a lot of malice and aggressiveness discharged," said SPD politician Grote now.
"When it comes to the family, of course, it gets to the point."
"Maybe applied a little too thick"
Apparently, it's not just insults online.
“Just recently I was wished for the same fate as Walter Lübcke, the murdered Kassel district president,” said Grote at “Zeit”: “I reported the tweet.
Otherwise, I have informed the police that I will not file any criminal complaints in the current situation for minor insults. "
In the interview, Grote also admits to a mistake of his own.
He had criticized the partying people in the Schanzenviertel, although he himself had to pay a fine in 2020 for violating Corona requirements.
"If I look back self-critically, I would say that my tweet was perhaps a bit too thick in the choice of words against the background of the mistake I made myself," says Grote.
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