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Belonged MPs: These provocateurs smuggled the AfD into the Reichstag building

2020-11-20T09:48:59.186Z


On the day of the vote on the Infection Protection Act, right-wing activists in parliament caused unrest and troubled MPs. The provocateurs came at the invitation of the AfD - which could now face consequences.


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Corona demonstrators in Berlin protest against changes to the Infection Protection Act

The protests against the Corona restrictions and the new Infection Protection Act had to take place on Wednesday in Berlin's government district at a little distance from the Reichstag building.

The Federal Ministry of the Interior had made sure that demonstrations in the "pacified district" immediately around the Bundestag were not permitted.

However, the ban did not prevent the Reichstag building itself from being unpeaceful in several cases.

Right in the middle: the AfD.

Members of their parliamentary group had invited guests who caused unrest in the Bundestag property - and staged the whole thing in a media-effective way in live streams and videos on social media.

AfD MP confirms invitation

Among the troublemakers was the conspiracy ideologist and publicist Thorsten Schulte, who also appears as a speaker at demos against the corona policy.

AfD MP Udo Hemmelgarn confirmed to SPIEGEL that he had invited Schulte as a guest, together with a photographer.

He has known Schulte for years and registered the two of them as visitors last week.

Hemmelgarn claims that he told Schulte beforehand in front of witnesses that he did not want any recordings outside of his office or compromising videos.

If this requirement was actually given by Hemmelgarn, his guest did not adhere to it.

On the contrary: Schulte, who also appears on the internet under the name "Silberjunge", took part in a live stream showing several provocateurs walking through the parliament building.

He can be seen on the right in the photo in the tweet below by journalist Lars Wienand.

At his side: A right-wing YouTuber named Elijah Tee, also known from the Corona activist scene.

In a video, as he describes it himself, the small group can be seen in Hemmelgarn's office.

According to a report by the “Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland” (RND), Elijah Tee also got into the building with the help of an AfD politician.

In the live stream you can hear that MP Hansjörg Müller is said to have given at least one person access to the Bundestag buildings.

In another scene, the group calls out to the chairman of the Green parliamentary group, Anton Hofreiter: "Would you like to say how you will vote?" Members of the Bundestag intervened.

When the activists tried to film the demonstration in front of the Reichstag building from a balcony of the Bundestag, according to SPIEGEL information, the Bundestag police intervened and evicted three of them from the building.

The normally valid regulation, according to which MPs can take six unannounced visitors into the Bundestag, was suspended for security reasons on Wednesday.

In response to a request from SPIEGEL, the Bundestag press office announced: "This means that all guests had to be registered and checked at the entrance control and accompanied by the welcoming MdB office in the building (as always)."

Nevertheless, several guests invited by the AfD had the opportunity to harass MPs from other groups - including the right-wing activist Rebecca Sommer, who once presented herself as a refugee aid worker.

In an excerpt from the live stream, you can see how Federal Minister of Economics Peter Altmaier intercepts them in the Bundestag.

While the CDU politician is waiting for an elevator, she films him with her cell phone and accuses him of "having no conscience".

Altmaier replied that his voters wanted him to agree to the Infection Protection Act.

Addressing the woman, he says: "You are a small minority." Then the elevator comes, Altmaier enters it, and Sommer throws wild insults at him.

According to the ARD capital studio, she may have had access to the Bundestag through the office of AfD MP Petr Bystron.

FDP MP Konstantin Kuhle shared the recording on Twitter on Wednesday and wrote that the woman had also spoken to him.

In an interview with SPIEGEL, Kuhle said: "If a cell phone camera is held in your face and you are asked how you vote, you feel pressured."

He told the woman that he would not answer any questions and went to the plenary.

"That was an ugly process, which again shows that the AfD - by apparently allowing such people access to parliament - is about despising democratic institutions."

The former co-founder of the SDP (later SPD) in the GDR, Angelika Barbe, was also seen in the Bundestag on Wednesday.

Barbe, who herself belonged to the Bundestag for the SPD in the 1990s, is now considered to be AfD-affiliated, has been on the board of trustees of the AfD-affiliated Desiderius Erasmus Foundation for two years and recently had repeatedly participated in demonstrations by corona deniers.

Barbe was observed in the Bundestag how she spoke to a CDU member about the Infection Protection Act.

RND reporter Markus Decker reported on Twitter that she was probably invited by the AfD.

The parliamentary director of the CSU, Stefan Müller, had also reported on Twitter about the intimidation attempts of the visitors.

He told the “Bild” newspaper: “In the subterranean passage from the Jakob-Kaiser-Haus to the Reichstag, six people harassed us MPs and questioned us aggressively in front of the camera about our attitude towards the law been allowed into a parliamentary office or a parliamentary group «.

The press office of the Bundestag said about the incidents that yesterday's events would be "examined by the Bundestag police".

Parliament's Council of Elders is due to deal with it in the early afternoon.

The Greens expect from Bundestag President Wolfgang Schäuble (CDU) a "comprehensive status report", as their parliamentary secretary Britta Haßelmann explained.

Bundestag Vice President Wolfgang Kubicki called for consequences for the MPs involved.

"I assume that this case will not only be dealt with in the Council of Elders," said the FDP politician to the German press agency.

"Because by addressing the MPs directly in connection with the vote on the Infection Protection Act, one can assume coercion," said Kubicki.

A criminal offense under Section 106 of the Criminal Code is possible, to which MPs can also incite or abet.

Section 106 deals with coercion of the Federal President and members of a constitutional body.

As a sanction, it provides imprisonment from three months to five years and in particularly serious cases of up to ten years.

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mes / sev / wow / dpa / AFP

Source: spiegel

All news articles on 2020-11-20

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