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Videos are circulating on social media showing how only three police officers protect the Reichstag from angry protesters. Berlin Interior Senator Andreas Geisel (SPD) said in a radio interview that parliament was not unprotected.
“That was a moment of one or two minutes,” he said on RBB Inforadio, this was going to be evaluated. “But it is not that the German Bundestag was not protected.” Due to more disturbances near the Russian embassy, not far from the parliament, emergency services had to help.
Roth is in favor of an open Reichstag
Protesters against the crown policy had broken through the barriers at the Reichstag building in Berlin on Saturday night. Then they stormed the stairs, black, white and red imperial flags, used by imperial citizens and right-wing extremists, but also other flags. The black-white-red flag was the flag of the German Empire and until 1935 the flag of the Third Reich under the rule of the National Socialists. After a while, reinforcements came to the aid of the three policemen.
The Vice President of the Bundestag, Claudia Roth (Greens), spoke in favor of a Reichstag still open. “We are not a high security wing,” he told Deutschlandfunk on Monday. “The Bundestag is and will continue to be an open house that invites citizens, who receive guests from all over the world, to experience our democracy.”
To prevent situations like the weekend, a security concept is needed. “That will certainly have to be discussed at the Berlin level, but that will also have to be discussed in our house,” Roth said. He accused the interior minister, Horst Seehofer (CSU), of underestimating the situation.
According to SPD Secretary General Lars Klingbeil, the Bundestag Council of Elders will discuss the incident in a special session. The Berlin Senate should debate how to protect Parliament. “I don’t want to barricade parliament,” Klingbeil said.
But “these images are damaging Germany’s international reputation,” he said, referring to the events on Saturday night. We have to see what demonstrations would be allowed. Klingbeil also supported Geisel, who originally wanted to ban Corona protests over the weekend. (Read an interview with the Senator of the Interior here).
