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Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier thanked the police for their work in the demonstrations in Berlin on Saturday and at the same time called on all citizens to defend democracy. Defending liberal democracy is not the sole responsibility of the police, he said after a meeting with officials who had been involved in the sometimes violent demonstrations against Corona’s requirements. “It is the task and duty of civil society as a whole, and of each individual. We must confront the enemies of our democracy in an active, decisive and courageous way.”
The thousands of police officers defended the law Saturday “at high personal risk with great professionalism,” Steinmeier said. They ensured that tens of thousands of people could exercise their fundamental right to freedom of expression and assembly. “Effective and courageous, but equally measured and appropriate, he showed that our constitutional state works.”
Among the six invited policemen were the three emergency services who had initially been left alone in front of the angry crowd at the entrance to the Reichstag building until reinforcements arrived.
“In view of the history of this almost unbearable place”
The federal president once again strongly condemned the occupation of the Reichstag building stairs by predominantly right-wing protesters. “Reich flags on the steps of the freely elected German parliament, the heart of our democracy, that is not only despicable, but in view of the history of this place, it is absolutely unbearable,” he said. “We do not tolerate any anti-democratic agitation and any degradation of the Federal Republic of Germany in the Bundestag.”
Steinmeier also called for clear demarcation in other demonstrations: Those who seek to close ranks with right-wing extremists on the streets or run nonchalantly alongside neo-Nazis, xenophobes and anti-Semites “and do not clearly and actively demarcate” are in common with them, Steinmeier said.
Anyone who is angry about the measures of the Crown or doubts its need “can and can speak out against it,” said the federal president. “But my understanding ends where the protesters get hooked on the cars of the enemies of democracy and political agitators.”
