Context for DiEM25:
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They partially blame NATO for the Ukrainian war for playing “geopolitical games”: https://diem25.org/diem-tv/how-to-end-the-war-in-ukraine/
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All Ukrainian territory occupied up to February 2022 should fall to Russia with Ukraine expected to give up further 100km inland along this border for a demilitarized zone: https://diem25.org/diem25-has-plan-for-peace-ukraine/
I’m all for calling out the Netanyahu government in particular for the treatment of the civilian population in Gaza and fully support ending all Western military support for that campaign but I don’t trust DiEM25 based on what I know about them. That said, unless there is definitive proof of “Volksverhetzung”, a liberal democracy should even let wackos speak out their opinions.
We have Sarah Wagenknecht to output that kind of drivel on Ukraine, no need to import Varoufakis. This ban is based on the same paragraph in the FreiG that the ban against that Austrian Nazi speaking at the AfD congress is based on: If you endanger the public order in Germany having a EU passport won’t help you you still can’t enter.
Though it has to be said that the Berlin (as in the state, not federal) police and interior ministry is very trigger-happy when it comes to Israel/Palestine, and I guess they are who issued the ban, press alas isn’t being particularly detailed about any of this. Alongside with Varoufakis a couple of other planned speakers got the same treatment, among other things for saying that they would’ve participated in the October 7th attacks given the chance. Maybe he got caught in the cross-fire and courts will overturn the ban, maybe they won’t, maybe he isn’t even going to try and instead just milk the issue for political points.
EDIT: GOD FUCKING DAMNIT it seems that there never has been a ban in the first place and some police officer just made it up. The term you’re looking for is “Dienstaufsichtsbeschwerde”.
In the past I allways kept my eyes on DiEM25 as a possible party to vote at some point in future. But in my opinion they went the completly wrong way for a while now. You brought some good reminders for why to better let them stay unimportant.
IIRC Volt is still out there if you’re looking for a Pan Euro party, I don’t know their policies other than federal europe but that’s what Diem25 was before they evidently went loco sooooo…
Ok so I’ve looked into various sources, and it looks like the police is concerned for the safety of ppl at the DiEM as well as civilians around it.
Because of that, they prohibited specific inflammatory and incendiary words and language as to prevent the discussion from escalating into violence in Berlin.
Listening to some of the things that were said before they issued the ban, it is clear that some of the speeches were radical or very much pushing the envelope.
Now there is some confusion about where the ban on specific language came from - police refers to the Senate, Senate refers to other parties (and that’s not great), but it’s not as if the police just felt like it or as if there was some shady stuff going on behind the scenes.
I am a German from Berlin, so I am very concerned when I hear stuff like this, and that’s why I had to look it up and dig into it to some degree. I wish the international press did a more thorough job, because if it didn’t take me that long to find a different account, that means they didn’t do their job and I don’t like that.
