As of: 09/22/2021 8:21 p.m.
After the killing of a petrol station employee in Idar-Oberstein, Interior Minister Seehofer has now also spoken out. He called the act “deeply shocking” – and at the same time complained that several federal government initiatives against extremism had been stopped in the Bundestag.
After the killing of a gas station cashier in Idar-Oberstein because of a dispute over the mask requirement, members of the federal government and the Rhineland-Palatinate state government sharply condemned the violence of so-called lateral thinkers. According to the Federal Ministry of the Interior, the act is an isolated case. Basically, however, the ministry observed that although the scene of “lateral thinkers” was shrinking, this smaller core was becoming increasingly radicalized, said a ministry spokesman. He didn’t give any numbers.
A 20-year-old student who worked at a gas station in Idar-Oberstein was killed on Saturday. A customer shot the cashier after he asked him to wear mouth and nose protection.
“The disinhibition of violence leaves you speechless”
A government spokeswoman in Berlin said: “The federal government condemns this targeted killing in the strongest possible way. The disinhibition of violence leaves you speechless.”
It is unbearable that the act in social media is used as an opportunity to divide society in Germany with public calls for violence. “It’s disturbing and it has to stop.” The spokeswoman spoke of a “corona denier scene” whose radicalization the rule of law will oppose by all means. The security authorities are very vigilant.
Seehofer: “Unfortunately the Bundestag did not approve”
In the meantime, Federal Interior Minister Horst Seehofer has also spoken out. “This is all deeply shocking and completely unacceptable. We have to stop such brutal acts,” said the CSU politician in the “Süddeutsche Zeitung” and on Twitter. Seehofer had previously been criticized for not initially commenting on the crime.
For a long time he has been warning against brutalizing society, Seehofer told the “Süddeutsche Zeitung” on. There are already good drafts to combat extremism, but these have been rejected in series in parliament over the past few months. For example, he agreed with the former Federal Minister for Family Affairs, Franziska Giffey, on a “defensive democracy law”. It should secure more money for initiatives and organizations that work for democratic values and against extremist tendencies.
“Unfortunately, the Bundestag did not approve the law,” Seehofer told the newspaper. The move had failed because of “nicknames”. It was Seehofer’s own parliamentary group, the CDU / CSU, that blocked the project after the ministers had reached an agreement.
Scholz: The climate that made the act possible
SPD chancellor candidate Olaf Scholz made the “lateral thinkers” movement jointly responsible for the act. “Because it is those who make inflammatory, divisive speeches who ultimately helped create a climate in which this act became possible in this man’s head,” said Scholz.
“And that’s why they share the responsibility that this happened. The whole ‘lateral thinker’ scenes that make such speeches and those who incite right-wing extremists on this issue not only divide our country, they create them Dissatisfaction that such deeds should happen. “
Laschet: Hatred on the Internet becomes action
Union Chancellor candidate Armin Laschet also sees joint responsibility among the “lateral thinkers”. These would spread hatred on the Internet these days. And “hatred on the net is followed by the bad deed in the end,” said Laschet at an election campaign event in Rottenburg am Neckar. “We oppose everyone who rushes there. We do not tolerate violence and murder and what we have experienced in our country,” said Laschet, referring to the crime in Idar-Oberstein.
Dreyer: Red line for violence and agitation
The Rhineland-Palatinate Prime Minister Malu Dreyer also sees the “lateral thinkers” responsible. Some of them justified or even welcomed the act, said the SPD politician. Anyone who does this “is preparing the ground for new violence,” she warned.
“We are discussing with people who are worried,” said the Prime Minister. “But we draw a clear red line on conspiracy myths, violence and agitation”. Dreyer spoke of an “unspeakable mélange” of vaccine opponents, Reich citizens and right-wing extremists who had come together in the corona pandemic.
Petrol station association calls for more help
After the attack, the petrol station interest group is calling for more political support. Association spokesman Herbert W. Rabl criticized the SWRthat the petrol station employees would have to enforce the Corona protective measures, although this is the task of the state: “May the state order regulatory measures in rooms that are de facto perceived by society – such as public spaces? Passing on the little employees, that’s actually a sociopolitical mess, “says Rabl.
Rabl said that the regulatory authorities checked whether the gas station employees were implementing the security measures. The customers themselves, however, are hardly checked.