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German reactions to the storming of the congress in the USA: the menetekel

2021-01-07T18:25:44.118Z


The attack on the US Congress leaves Berlin politicians stunned - and worried: Can that also happen here? The security precautions are now to be checked in the Bundestag.


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Police officers in front of the Reichstag building

Photo: ODD ANDERSEN / AFP

The day after the attack on the most sacred of American democracy, German politics is in shock.

And it tends to get bigger the more details, the more pictures and reports about the events in and in front of the US Congress make the rounds.

You had to get used to a lot in the past four years of Donald Trump's presidency.

But a storming of parliament by his insurgent supporters - after more or less explicit request from Trump?

  • "We had to see how vulnerable even the oldest and most powerful democracy in the world is," says Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

  • "These pictures made me angry and also sad," says Chancellor Angela Merkel.

  • And Bundestag President Wolfgang Schäuble stated "a dramatic and worrying escalation" of political developments in the USA.

The political leaders of the Federal Republic also agree that the outgoing Republican US President has a lot to do with his fans' attack on Congress.

Federal President Steinmeier puts it this way: "These scenes that we have seen are the result of lies and more lies, of division and contempt for democracy, of hatred and agitation." The result of four years of Trump.

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Insurgents at the Congress Building in Washington DC

Photo: Christy Bowe / imago images / ZUMA Wire

It will soon be history, although he still does not acknowledge his defeat and holds on to the lie of the stolen election - on January 20th, Joe Biden is sworn in as president.

But hate speech and hatred don't suddenly vanish into thin air in the US, just as little as in the rest of the world.

How divided Germany is has shown again and again in recent years, promoted by the arrival of the AfD in the state parliaments and the Bundestag - whether on the subject of refugee policy, climate issues or in the past few months in the fight against the corona virus.

Fortunately, American standards are not yet.

But it was only a few months ago that Corona demonstrators forcibly occupied the steps of the Reichstag.

And in mid-November, some protesters even managed to get into the Reichstag building.

So it's no wonder that some people think that scenes like those in Washington are no longer unimaginable in Berlin.

  • SPD General Secretary Lars Klingbeil told SPIEGEL: "As democrats, we will do everything we can to ensure that these enemies of democracy, like Trump, are pushed back in the USA."

  • Left leader Katja Kipping becomes even clearer.

    "We shouldn't pretend that isn't possible here," she told SPIEGEL.

    "Our country is also fermenting." There is "a right-wing violent mob on the street that has long since found its way into our parliaments."

Kipping more specifically: "Every speech by AfD MPs breathes this spirit of anti-democratic hatred." "For these demagogues, democracy itself is always the target," says the left-wing politician.

"If the democratic parties are not clear and stable here, it can happen to us faster than we all think."

At the AfD you feel wrongly attacked again.

In the quarreling party there was a joint statement by the two party leaders Tino Chrupalla and Jörg Meuthen and the parliamentary group leaders Alexander Gauland and Alice Weidel on Thursday morning, condemning the events surrounding the congress.

The "storm on the Capitol" was "a violent attack on the highest democratic institutions in the United States," it says.

But the AfD leadership also writes: Anyone who imputes sympathy for these events to the party is abusing "the anarchist events for party political purposes in Germany."

more on the subject

  • Federal President: Steinmeier blames Trump for "storming the heart of democracy"

  • Merkel on storming the Capitol: "These pictures made me angry and sad"

  • Storming the US Capitol: Who rushes, bears responsibilityA guest contribution by Heiko Maas (SPD), Federal Foreign Minister

The fact is that AfD politicians took part in the demonstrations at the end of August that led to the occupation of the Reichstag stairs.

The same applies to the action in November, in which some protesters made it into parliament.

The AfD parliamentarians Petr Bystron and Udo Hammelgarn, who had helped the intruders with this, were subsequently punished by the faction board with a temporary withdrawal of speech in the plenum.

Whether the concerns about similar scenes as in Washington are justified or not - Bundestag President Schäuble, like some colleagues in other national parliaments in Europe, has clarified whether further security precautions are necessary.

He also wrote a friendly support letter to the US House of Representatives spokeswoman Nancy Pelosi on Thursday morning.

The President of the European Parliament, David Sassoli, also wrote a few lines to Pelosi.

The administration of the Bundestag announced on Thursday that Schäuble wanted to "examine in close coordination with the security officers of the parliamentary groups as well as the State of Berlin and the Federal Ministry of the Interior what conclusions can be drawn from this for the protection of the Bundestag".

The German embassy in Washington should deliver a report on how the excesses of violence within the Capitol could come about.

In the Bundestag presidium, however, according to SPIEGEL information, it is assumed that the German parliament building is already very well armed against attempted storming by demonstrators.

This was the result of a security review following the events of late August.

Because windows and doors are equipped with bulletproof glass, protesters cannot break the windows, as happened in Washington on Wednesday.

In addition, the Bundestag police have sufficient officers who could prevent demonstrators from entering offices or the plenary hall if individuals should manage to get into the parliament building.

And: In the event of a massive rush, there is a so-called "lockdown" function.

This is an emergency mechanism with which all entrances to the Bundestag can be locked at the push of a button.

Bundestag Vice-President Wolfgang Kubicki (FDP) made a statement to SPIEGEL: "A storming of parliament like the one we saw in Washington would not be possible in the Bundestag."

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Source: spiegel

All news articles on 2021-01-07

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