Some police officers are even standing on the outside balcony of Cologne Cathedral, gazing deep down at Roncalliplatz. The area between the cathedral and the museum is screened off by dozens of officials. A provisional comfort zone for social democrats has emerged there, with lattice elements, a huge white umbrella, and the spectacular church backdrop behind the stage. The whistles can be heard distantly, like an annoying tinnitus.
These are turbulent times, the state election campaign in North Rhine-Westphalia was repeatedly plagued by acoustic disruptors with protest posters. The final rally of the SPD on Friday afternoon is no exception, especially when the Chancellor comes.
Not only Olaf Scholz appears in Cologne. A few hundred meters further, on the Heumarkt, the Greens meet at a later date to mobilize people for the final sprint on Sunday. Economics Minister Robert Habeck has been announced, as has Minister of State for Culture Claudia Roth – and inevitably also protesters from “new right structures”, as the Greens call it. Police officers in protective gear also gather at Heumarkt in the afternoon and line up in small groups, back to back, with a 360-degree view so that nobody can sneak up unnoticed.
Maybe it could be enough for red-green
The Social Democrats start an hour earlier. SPD party leader Lars Klingbeil comes on stage, as do the two Prime Ministers Malu Dreyer (Rhineland-Palatinate) and Anke Rehlinger (Saarland) to give the top candidate in North Rhine-Westphalia, Thomas Kutschaty, the last boost. The SPD is just behind the CDU in polls, but maybe it could still be enough for red-green because the Greens can expect a historic double-digit result.
Klingbeil also creates a good atmosphere when he addresses Russia’s war against Ukraine. “Putin is a war criminal,” says Klingbeil. The Social Democrats cheer, the protesters further back howl. They shout “warmonger”. Two demonstrators walk back and forth behind the barrier with a banner: “Create peace without weapons.” A group of Jusos repeatedly stands in front of it with their own banner: “Together against the right”.
Scholz arrives a little later. After the greeting on stage, he immediately switches to Ukraine. It is a “brutal war of aggression against an innocent neighbor solely to expand its own power and expand its own territory,” says Scholz. “Revanchism and imperialism must not determine reality in Europe. We will continue to support Ukraine in the fight.” Scholz receives thunderous applause. Ukraine must be able to defend itself, which is why more weapons will be supplied, emphasizes the Chancellor. He does not speak of “heavy” weapons.
Sanctions “until there is peace”
Scholz says that he spoke to Putin on the phone. “It is clear that what has not yet been understood is that only one thing makes peace possible. Only if there is an understanding, an agreement, a peace agreement between Ukraine and Russia that is not a dictated peace,” emphasized Scholz.
The sanctions would continue “until there is peace,” says. scholz He speaks loudly, powerfully, energetically, very differently from the last restrained TV speech on May 8th.
Scholz sounds stronger on the marketplace. “Putin harms the citizens of Russia, Putin harms Russia,” says the Chancellor. Germany will make itself independent of fossil energies. One will rely on renewable energies and increase the pace there. Scholz also says clearly that there will be no confrontation between NATO and Russia. He means World War III. The rest is campaigning.
For the Greens, the bachelor party is not interested
Numerous police vans can be seen on the way to the Green Party rally. The Heumarkt is lined with outdoor gastronomy. The people with their beer, fat knuckles and sundaes get to see a lot. Young men stagger past. One is wearing a Snow White costume and the others are wearing black t-shirts that read, “I’m not the groom. I’m only here to drink.” They’re not interested in the Greens. Not even for the counter-protest.
Long before Habeck arrives, dozens of people scream and trill at the barrier to the interior in front of the stage. “War monger,” “Get lost,” they hurl at everyone on stage, even the band during breaks. Annoyed Green supporters hold against it. “Be quiet, respect me,” says an older Green supporter, in vain. Verbal skirmishes erupted again and again.
Anti-war Marxist-Leninist flags are on display; a man in a doctor’s coat holds the placard “Vaccination = Crime”; another walks around with a captain’s hat, megaphone and the self-painted poster “Idiots govern us to our downfall”. Elderly women hold up “warmonger” signs, ribbons from the “Die Basis” movement dangle from their necks. A gaunt man screams in rage “Claudia Roth to her death”. When he later frightens a mother with children with a deafening whistle and the daughter begins to cry, the police intervene and lead him away from the scene.
They want to shout down all the speakers on stage. When Claudia Roth comes onto the stage, the background noise increases. “We are many, many more than you, and we are more melodic,” says Roth. She defends arms deliveries to Ukraine. It was an “incredibly difficult decision for a party that represents non-violence”.
“I’m not proud of it either,” says Habeck
Mona Neubaur, the Greens’ top candidate in the state election campaign, is already familiar with such disturbances and says: “Because we are a democratic party, you can demonstrate here and trill and whistle. In authoritarian states you would have been cleared away long ago. We can stand it as democrats.”
Mona Neubaur, top candidate of the Greens
Source: dpa/David Young
Economics Minister Habeck says that if you don’t help Ukraine, you’ll be complicit. Decisions have to be made that you can’t be proud of. I’m not proud of that either, neither of the arms deliveries to Ukraine nor of the attempt to get fossil fuels away from Russia by establishing new fossil fuel energy relationships,” says Habeck self-critically.
The Greens supporters cheer him on again and again, they understand Habeck’s quarrels and the political course he has taken. The rally in Cologne is not only an election campaign date, but also a kind of self-assurance in difficult times.