Court decision: “Hang the Greens!” – posters have to be hung up in Zwickau

The right-wing extremist party “Der III. Weg” has to remove its controversial election posters in Zwickau. That was decided by the Saxon Higher Administrative Court (OVG). The reason given by the court was that the posters posed a threat to public safety. The poster fulfills the objective fact of sedition.

According to the court, the text section in a much smaller font size does not change anything, because the majority of viewers either cannot or will not see it. Thus the poster is suitable to disturb the public peace by inciting hatred and by attacking the human dignity of the members of the Greens.

With the decision of the OVG, the complaint of the city of Zwickau is successful. Two weeks ago she had already ordered that the posters of the party “Der III. Weg” had to be removed. The party had taken the case to the Chemnitz Administrative Court and had achieved partial success: the court decided that the posters may be hung subject to certain conditions. Accordingly, there should be a distance of at least 100 meters to election posters of the Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen party. Both “Der III. Weg” and the city of Zwickau had lodged a complaint against this with the Saxon Higher Administrative Court. The decision in the interim legal protection procedure is final.

The splinter party’s election posters had also appeared in several other cities and federal states in recent weeks and had occupied the judiciary there. The District Court of Munich I decided to ban the posters. With a preliminary injunction on Friday, the court prohibited the party from using the slogan publicly, said a spokeswoman. The police headquarters had already been instructed last Thursday to remove such posters based on the initial suspicion of a public request to commit crimes, said the Ministry of the Interior in Munich.