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Protest by animal rights activists in front of the Tönnies slaughterhouse in Kellinghusen: "Then it's finally good in this banana republic"
Photo: Chris Emil Janssen / imago images / Chris Emil Janssen
It's a short video, but Jann-Henning Dircks' anger is clearly palpable: "Take a sledgehammer, battery flex and bolt cutters with you," says the farmer to the camera.
Then the tirade continues: "Then we stand together and then we won't put up with it and then it's finally good in this society, in this banana republic." Because of his choice of words, Dircks, Mayor of Norderfriedrichskoog in Schleswig-Holstein, has had to since appear in court on Tuesday.
The public prosecutor's office in Flensburg accuses him of publicly inciting criminal offenses, as a spokesman told SPIEGEL.
Dircks already spoke the words in 2020.
Back then, in November, animal rights activists protested in front of the Tönnies slaughterhouse in Kellinghusen.
The activists wanted to prevent the delivery of pigs.
Dircks then shot the video – according to his own statements for an internal Whatsapp group of farmers, as his lawyer explained in the courtroom according to “shz”.
How the speech finally got on Facebook, where it was publicly visible, Dircks could not explain, it said in a statement read by the lawyer.
In court, the mayor did not comment on the video on the first day of the trial.
However, even after the clip became known, Dircks continued to stand by his words.
In November 2020, he told NDR that he regretted “a bit” having called the activists a “pack”.
"Other than that, I stand by what I said," Dircks said at the time.
Solidarity with the rural folk movement
Dircks is no stranger to highly controversial speeches.
In June 2020, he showed his solidarity with the controversial Landvolk movement, which has anti-Semitic roots.
Dircks got a flag with the symbol of the movement for a protest march.
It shows a red plow with a white sword and was already used in the early days of the movement in the 1920s.
In another Facebook video, Dircks proudly waves the flag at the camera.
He distances himself from "radical things and ideas," says Diercks in it.
Then he gets angry again, his voice getting louder.
He speaks of politics, the "know-it-alls in our country who are trying to destroy our homeland." He carries the flag "with pride."
His statements had no consequences at the time.
In the case that is now before the court, Dircks must expect at least a fine if found guilty.
A maximum of five years imprisonment is possible.
Two further dates are scheduled, and the verdict is to be announced in mid-September.
lmd