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Sebastian Czaja
Photo: IMAGO/Christian Spicker
A posse from Berlin is causing discussions – and could have legal consequences for FDP parliamentary group leader Sebastian Czaja.
For two years, Berlin's Friedrichstrasse was closed to cars.
In the night from Tuesday to Wednesday, the lock should be lifted again.
FDP parliamentary group leader Sebastian Czaja used this for a PR campaign.
A video shows how the FDP MP clears a barrier off Friedrichstrasse at night.
He actually wanted to reopen the road with traffic senator Bettina Jarasch (Greens), says Czaja in the video, but she'd rather close roads than open them.
The spokesman for the Greens, Christian Storch, sharply criticized the action.
With the video, the FDP imitated an action by the AfD.
Members of the party had previously released a similar video.
On Twitter, a journalist from the "Tagesspiegel" accused the FDP politician of having placed the barrier himself in a place where there had never been one.
Just to put them away again.
That, the Greens spokesman stated, was punishable.
According to his own statements, he filed a criminal complaint with the Berlin police and also shared it on Twitter.
Accordingly, Czaja should not only have intervened without authorization in road traffic.
He is said to have "acted without authorization in the exercise of a public office", which he is not allowed to exercise.
In the opposition of the House of Representatives one finds the whole thing apparently petty.
CDU General Secretary Stefan Evers wrote on Twitter: “You can find the FDP action embarrassing, for free.
That happens in every election campaign.
As spokesman for the Berlin Greens, it is also an amazing style to seriously engage the police in this matter.«
As part of a model project for the mobility turnaround, around 500 meters of Friedrichstrasse had been closed to cars for two years.
The Berlin administrative court had recently declared the car-free Friedrichstraße illegal - and thus triggered a dispute in the Senate.
Governing Mayor Franziska Giffey (SPD) instructed Traffic Senator Jarasch to immediately open the road to cars again.
Jarasch blocked himself at first.
Mfh