Saturday, December 18, 2021
“Eruptive waves” of hatred
Hans: family threatened by anti-vaccination agents
Again and again, politicians are the target of corona deniers and vaccination opponents. Saarland’s Prime Minister also reports verbal attacks and threats against him and his family. This is “simply no longer tolerable”. The state security is now initiating investigations.
The Saarland Prime Minister Tobias Hans sees himself and his family threatened by radical opponents of vaccinations and corona deniers. “I can feel that the tone is getting rougher, especially in social networks, and not just on the street,” said Hans in Saarbrücken. Threats are not new to him: “But the fact that it can go as far as the worst utterances also with a view to the family is a new quality,” said the CDU politician.
After the Russian state television “RT Deutsch” shared a statement from Hans about the 2G rule in a ZDF talk show “isolated in its networks”, there was “a very massive increase in threats that also include my family”. “Something like that is unacceptable,” said Hans. There have been “waves of eruptions” that “extend to radicalization and threats of violence”. This is “simply no longer tolerable”. The state security will examine the processes.
With a view to increasing radicalization overall, he said: “We must, without question, be very vigilant about this development.” A “small but noisy minority” is becoming increasingly radicalized. “It is unacceptable, for example, when politicians at home in their apartments are visited with torch-lit marches, verbally abused and threatening letters sent.” Meetings that violate the law would have to be dissolved. “Where there is some militant violence that has to be followed up. We can do that, our constitutional state cannot accept that.”
Peaceful protest against the corona rules is legitimate and a cornerstone of democracy, violent protest is not. Within the group of the unvaccinated, however, the radical forces are a small minority. In view of the numbers, there could be no question of a split through the middle of society.