Actually, the market festival for Bad Lobenstein is an occasion to celebrate. Last weekend, however, Mayor Thomas Weigelt is said to have become violent at the festival after noticing how a reporter from the East Thuringian newspaper filmed. So reports the Ostthüringer Zeitung himself. On a video circulating on the internet, can be seen how the mayor stretches out his hands to the reporter Peter Hagen. He then falls and injures himself slightly. His camera also falls to the ground.
Thomas Weigelt had previously been seated by the reporter at a standing table with Heinrich XIII. Prince Reuss was filmed, who is close to the Reich citizen scene and is said to spread conspiracy ideologies. Weigelt himself had only recently survived a voting procedure that, according to the Ostthüringer Zeitung, was initiated because of statements on social media in which he accused the government of lying, among other things.
The Funke media group is demanding the resignation of the mayor
The current incident is now causing outrage. Reporter Peter Hagen filed a criminal complaint against the mayor for bodily harm and damage to property, and the criminal police have already started investigations. Julia Becker, the chairwoman of the supervisory board of the Funke media group, to which the Ostthüringer Zeitung belongs, calls for the mayor’s resignation. “We expect the mayor of Bad Lobenstein to apologize for his behavior and resign from office,” a Funke spokesman told the SZ. Sigrun Albert, General Manager of the BDZV, describes the incident as “frightening and deeply worrying”. It was “an attack on press freedom and our democratic values.”
Even before the incident, discussions between Peter Hagen and Thomas Weigelt were said to have taken place after Hagen had been excluded from the mayor’s reception. The reporter had, this can also be seen on a video, asked why someone like Henry XIII. was invited to the festival, which is accused of being close to Reich citizens. The same guest with whom Weigelt later stood at the high table.
Weigelt defends himself in a written statement on Monday: For a while now, the journalist in question has been letting his personal animosity flow into reporting about the mayor, it says. Weigelt says about the allegations: “I didn’t touch Mr. Hagen.” The incident happened in reverse. The reporter stormed towards him and his guests with a filming camera, whereupon Weigelt raised his arms protectively. In response, the reporter took a step back and ran into a passer-by nearby, causing both of them to fall to the ground. The reporter is now trying to make it look like an attack. Weigelt also complains that this scandal happened “of all things at the market festival”.