Before last weekend: the dispute over the spring festival escalated - the mayor was heavily criticized

Created: 05/07/2022 04:54

By: Patrick Mayer

Polarizing: pictures of half-naked women in booths at the Stuttgart Spring Festival.

© Bernd Weißbrod/dpa

The dispute over controversial images of women by the showmen at the Stuttgart Spring Festival is entering the next round.

Mayor Nopper is under pressure.

Munich/Stuttgart - Before the last weekend of the Stuttgart Spring Festival 2022, the sometimes heated discussions about the controversial images of half-naked women on showmen's booths do not stop.

In the municipal council, the Stuttgart Greens criticized, among other things, the depiction of “naked women and orientalized women”.

Stuttgart Spring Festival: Pictures of half-naked women cause Zoff

There was talk of sexism, and of alleged discrimination, because clichéd scenes from the Arab world can also be seen on stalls.

In the meantime, Lord Mayor Dr.

Frank Nopper (CDU) joined the debate - and promptly received harsh criticism for individual statements.

In a statement by Noppers, it is said that he advises "calmness, moderateness and concentration on what is really important".

Furthermore, the head of the town hall of the Baden-Württemberg state capital is of the opinion: "The municipal council should not become a censorship authority, a high council of the guardians of virtue and morals, the inquisitors and investigators of discrimination." Nopper defended the criticized showmen.

In his view, “after two years of the pandemic, they are in an economic struggle for survival and must concentrate their energies on existential issues”.

In the video: Stuttgart - Spring Festival "Light" draws crowds to Bad Cannstatt

Nopper's statements subsequently drew massive criticism from the Greens in Stuttgart.

They demanded that the city's equality office should conduct a training campaign on the subject of sexism.

The Greens are not concerned with censorship, the party's faction in the municipal council affirms, but "simply with whether these representations can still be reconciled with the basic understanding of non-discriminatory advertising".

Stuttgart Spring Festival: Pictures of lascivious women on showmen's booths cause criticism

The background to the Zoff: A number of stands and stalls at the Stuttgart Spring Festival show scantily clad women in lascivious poses, some with bare chests.

For example, above the “Tales from 1001 Nights” stand, a presumably Arabic belly dancer is shown whose breasts are not covered.

Controversial: a can throwing booth at the Stuttgart Spring Festival.

The pictures show women in lascivious poses.

© Bernd Weißbrod/dpa

Stuttgart Spring Festival: Showmen want a compromise with the Greens

The Greens had called for all "sexist and discriminatory" images to be removed from the folk festival.

According to the showmen's association, they now want a compromise instead of bans.

The association itself had proposed a meeting with the Stuttgart Greens, said chairman Mark Roschmann.

It has not yet been communicated whether a compromise has been reached and, if so, what it looks like.

The only thing that is clear is that the topic is polarizing enormously around the Stuttgart Spring Festival.