MP allegedly greeted a party colleague at German parliament building ‘with a heel click and a Hitler salute’
Berlin prosecutors say they have charged a member of the far-right Alternative für Deutschland party with making a Nazi salute in parliament.
The suspect allegedly “greeted a party colleague … at the east entrance to the Reichstag building with a heel click and a Hitler salute” in June 2023, the prosecutors said in a statement issued on Monday.
Making such a salute is illegal in Germany and is punishable by up to three years in prison.
The newspaper Bild named the politician as Matthias Moosdorf, 60, a member of parliament for Zwickau in the former East German state of Saxony.
No good comes from this. This is the equivalent threatening or intending for violence.
And yet, I’m told by another user, a free speech absolutist, that this is absolutely normal and should be protected.
I mean, to take a line from Inglorious Bastards
I much prefer the Nazis who are wearing their beliefs on their sleeves.
Only problem is that they don’t ever come out of the woodwork until they’ve got safety in numbers.
The problem Germany has in the modern day isn’t a bunch of schlubs throwing up Nazi salutes. Its the much larger pool of industrial and media insiders who have goaded them into it, financed their little fascist friend-groups, and sponsored them to seize power to the benefit of the far-right plutocracy.
Liberals panick when they see the former, but they’re constantly trying to win over the latter. You can’t clean your house of insects if you keep trying to make friends with the Queen Bee.
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Do you think they just get charged without any evidence?
Nazi apologist
Wow, my comment was really misinterpreted. Not once did I condone Nazi ideology, nor provide any form of justification or apology to their ideology. I brought up an ethics debate regarding the practicality of a law confining the movement of one’s body. I asked about the merit of perception versus reality. Calling me a Nazi apologist completely misses the forest for the trees… and those weren’t even my trees.
I’m not a free speech absolutist. I just live in a society where a huge argument against this kind of legislation is the potential for abuse. Please forgive me for wanting to explore these concepts together, rather than hiding within my own ignorance like so many others do.
Well maybe start there then. Then you would know that there were several witnesses (he didn’t do it in an office in secret, but in the entrance lobby).
You would also know that the incident happened a while ago and the parliamentary review board has already stripped him of his immunity for this case. So a group of his colleagues already determined there is sufficient evidence for such an investigation.
This is true of any crime. Unless you have more than somebody’s word to go on, there won’t be any kind of investigation. Moreover, as an MP the guy enjoys parliamentary immunity unless it is specifically lifted by a committee of his colleagues (which includes members of his own party).
Yes. If an MP is accused of any crime, this is the normal process of investigation. Wether or not the accusation is true or not is precisely the point of this investigation.
Not just a party member, an MP specifically. And they were not arrested, just formally charged with a crime. And it wasn’t over an agreement of ideology, but for doing a very specific thing that is well known to be illegal (with exceptions for education and art). Now, if your ideology can not be expressed without doing a Nazi salute, then I guess, yes your ideology is illegal in Germany. Wether or not that is good or not, is left as an exercise for the reader.
Presumably the same thing would happen except any non-AfD party would immediately conduct their own internal investigation and promptly boot any member that actually did this.
Democracy tends to come with law systems and due process to prevent this from happening. Unlike, you know, Nazism.