The scandal is growing in Germany, where the federal government decided to take a drastic step a few days ago: due to unconstitutional activity a right-wing magazine with a national circulation of 40,000 copies and its publisher were banned, which was announced accompanied by a raid-like police operation.
We wrote it: According to Federal Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser, the company that subscribes to the Compact magazine is, among other things, anti-migrant spreading hate speech and pro-Russian propaganda, and threatens parliamentary democracy in Germany.
Therefore, in an unprecedented way, the government decided to ban the press product.
At the same time as the announcement on Tuesday morning, the professional services were struck in four federal states: armed uniformed officers searched the properties of the media company, as well as the homes of managers and shareholders.
The case caused a great reaction, dividing politicians and society, many criticize the government’s action against freedom of expression. However, the matter did not stop there, as the publisher of Compact magazine also intervened: initiated criminal proceedings against the Minister of the Interior and several officials.
The police raided the bedroom, the photo went around
On Friday, the editor-in-chief of Compact, Jürgen Elsässer, filed a criminal complaint against an “unknown” perpetrator for violating official secrecy – written by Berliner Zeitung on Sunday.
The Apollo News news portal cites the report that the suspects, i.e. specifically Nancy Faeser Federal Minister of the Interior, as well as Thomas Haldenwang, the president of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution and his immediate environment may have committed a violation because several pro-government media outlets were notified in advance of Tuesday morning’s announcement and police raids.
Nancy Faeser, German Federal Minister of the Interior
The house search took place, for example, in Elsässer’s home in the early hours of the morning, after which a few minutes later several newspapers and their on social media Presumably prepared, long reports appeared, respectively photos of the editor-in-chief dragged naked from his bed in a bathrobe.
Bottom of the form
At 6:30 in the morning my bedroom was brightly lit, there were armed police around me, I couldn’t get up, I was naked – He told Stefanie Elsässer, wife of the editor-in-chief of Compact magazine, in an interview with Deutschland-Kurier.
He added that they see the procedure as a violation of their privacy.
Constitutional lawyers question the government
Meanwhile, the decision to ban the Compact magazine continues to divide Germans, the Ministry of the Interior receives sharp notices from several places, which it seems will not be able to smoothly enforce its will.
Some of the criticisms are loudest from the opposition: the state president of the AfD party in Brandenburg, who won far more votes than expected in the European Parliament elections, René Springer according to for example with the ban, the government arbitrarily trampled on freedom of speech and freedom of the press.
Many people share the opinion that this is due to: the Scholz cabinet is afraid of legitimate criticism and the loss of power, that’s why he preaches, but actually hates democracy.
Besides constitutional lawyers also have their doubts regarding the legality of the move.
The ministry bases the ban on unconstitutional activity based on the violation of the German association law, for which Nancy Faeser published a nearly 90-page justification.
However, the association that publishes the magazine is classically not an association, but consists of profit-oriented companies. Therefore according to the experts, it is doubtful whether the ban was legal based on the cited restrictions.
Compact leaders are determined and they go to the Constitutional Court with an appeal against the decision they indicated.
The internal affairs are based on the outburst of a caretaker
According to German law, the government must also prove that the right-wing magazine serves anti-democratic, hateful messages in an aggressive, inciting style, with which they encourage their readers to take action against the government and the current political order.
Press releases according to the Ministry of the Interior would base this on the statement of a ministerial caretaker, who told editor-in-chief Jürgen Elsässer last spring: he was already thinking about using his gun to shoot out the eye of Robert Habeck, the currently reigning Minister of Economy.
Faeserek must prove, among other things, that the janitor’s outburst was really serious and that he did it under the influence of reading Compact magazine.
Source: www.economx.hu
