Pink Floyd-Co-founder Roger Waters wants to take legal action against the planned cancellation of his concerts in Frankfurt am Main and Munich. These are “unconstitutional” and “unjustified,” said the musician’s management in London. And further: They were based “on the false accusation that Roger Waters was anti-Semitic, which he is not”. “Waters has instructed his attorneys to immediately take all necessary steps to overturn this unjustified decision and to ensure that his fundamental human right to freedom of expression is protected.”
Waters is a supporter of the anti-Semitic BDS (“Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions”) movement, a political campaign aimed at isolating the State of Israel economically, culturally, and politically. In addition, he has recently repeatedly commented on the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine, using conspiracy theories: “The most important reason for Western arms deliveries to Ukraine is certainly the profit of the arms industry,” he whispers. Then he called Vladimir Putin a thoughtful statesman whose main concern was to prevent genocide and drive out fascists.
Waters also has supporters: Eric Clapton, for example, but also Noam Chomsky
In Munich, the economic committee should therefore actually discuss the concert on May 21st on Tuesday. However, the decision was postponed to the plenary session of the city council on March 22nd. In addition to Bavaria’s Anti-Semitism Commissioner, Ludwig Spaenle, Charlotte Knobloch, President of the Jewish Community in Munich and Upper Bavaria, also advocated a rejection: “For me, the fact that Roger Waters’ hatred shouldn’t be given a stage in Munich is a question of democratic self-esteem,” she wrote on Twitter.
Recently, however, Waters also had advocates. On the Change.org platform demanded various musicians, artists, writers and journalists to let him perform. Among the signatories were Eric Clapton, Peter Gabriel and Brian Eno – but also intellectuals such as Noam Chomsky or the director and Monty Python comedian Terry Gilliam.
At least in Munich, a cancellation could be difficult anyway. In the past, the municipal operator of the Olympic Hall had emphasized that it was not legally possible to refuse Waters the lease. The basis is, among other things, a judgment of the Federal Administrative Court of January 20, 2022, which attaches great importance to freedom of expression.