“Race” of red florists and police with black and white paint
The lettering on the Rote Flora in Hamburg was painted over again on Monday lunchtime
Source: dpa / Markus Scholz
The “Pimmelgate” controversy surrounding Hamburg’s Senator for the Interior Andy Grote (SPD) continues. After a poster on the Rote Flora with the slogan “Andy, you are so 1 dick” was painted over by the police, presumably left activists reacted quickly – as did the officials shortly afterwards.
Dhe dispute in the “Pimmelgate” affair about Hamburg’s Senator for the Interior Andy Grote does not end: After a large poster on Saturday at the Rote Flora in Hamburg’s Sternschanze district with the inscription “Andy, you are so 1 Pimmel”, presumably by people from the left-wing autonomous community In the city center and the lettering was painted over by the police on Sunday morning, the red florists and the police are now in a kind of race. On Sunday evening, for example, the identical lettering was once again emblazoned on the surface that had been painted over with black.
A few hours later, on Monday morning, this was then painted over again:
At least on Twitter, the reaction of the red florists, who referred to their supply of white paint, was not long in coming.
The comments are busy counting who has painted over or overwritten what and how often. Current status: 2: 2.
The dispute was triggered by a tweet sent to Grote in May on Twitter with the wording “You’re so 1 dick”. It came from the account of a fan bar not far from the FC St. Pauli Stadium in response to a tweet from Grote in which he described people as “ignorant” who celebrated in the Schanzenviertel despite Corona. At the beginning of the pandemic, Grote himself celebrated his renewed appointment to the Interior Senator in disregard of the Corona rules in a pub and, according to media reports, had to pay a fine of 1000 euros for this.
However, the matter only became a “pimmelgate” online when the public prosecutor’s office had the alleged author of the tweet’s apartment searched in September after Grote’s criminal complaint for insult. Thousands of people criticized the action on Twitter as completely disproportionate and excessive, with the resentment also related to the behavior of the police and prosecutors. The alleged author of the offensive tweet, however, received a lot of support. And the incident was even worth reporting to the Washington Post.
The dispute then reached a further stage at the beginning of October. Unknown distributed stickers with an identical slogan in the vicinity of the Senator’s apartment in St. Pauli. The police removed these too. On the one hand, the operation was carried out in the interests of averting danger, as there was a suspicion of insult, and on the other hand, the police said it was to preserve evidence.
While the left in the citizenry spoke of an “embarrassing spectacle” that Grote had to end, the police justified the renewed use. “This lettering is an insult in the room,” said spokesman Florian Abbenseth. The police are subject to the principle of legality and must take action.
For the CDU opposition in the Hamburg citizenship, Interior Senator Grote is becoming an ever greater burden for the Senate, but also for the police. “With his Corona party and the lack of insight that has persisted to this day, he has lost the integrity that is indispensable for the office of Interior Senator,” said the CDU interior expert Dennis Gladiator. The events around “Pimmelgate” are now only absurd. “Thousands of victims of hatred and agitation would wish if their advertisements were processed anywhere near as intensively,” said Gladiator, adding: “The standards here are completely insane.”
.
