Wednesday, November 03, 2021
From malice to death threat
“Pimmelgate” attacks Andy Grote
The Hamburg Senator for the Interior, Andy Grote, admits his own mistakes in the controversy over the so-called “Pimmelgate”. However, he also reports hostility against him and his family. He reported a death threat from the Internet.
In the whirlwind of the so-called “Pimmelgate”, according to the words of Hamburg’s Senator for the Interior, Andy Grote, a lot of malice and aggressiveness was discharged – even into the private sphere. “When it comes to the family, of course, it gets to you,” said the SPD politician of “Die Zeit”. He is now no longer only attacked on the Internet, but also in his private environment. “If my wife comes home and finds out that someone has left their excrement in front of our gate, that is already a cross-border.”
On the background of the controversy that has become known as “Pimmelgate”: In May there was a tweet to Grote on Twitter with the wording “You are so 1 dick”. It came in response to a tweet from Grote in which he described people as “ignorant” who had celebrated in the Schanzenviertel despite Corona. At the beginning of the pandemic, Grote himself celebrated his renewed appointment to the Interior Senator in disregard of the Corona rules in a pub and had to pay a fine for it.
The matter became “pimmelgate” when the public prosecutor’s office had the apartment of the alleged author of the tweet searched in September after Grote’s criminal complaint for insult. Thousands of people criticized the action online under the hashtag “Pimmelgate” as completely disproportionate and excessive.
“Just recently I was wished for the same fate as Walter Lübcke, the murdered district president of Kassel, via tweet,” said Grote of “Die Zeit”. “I showed the tweet.” Otherwise, he told the police that he would not file any criminal complaints in the current situation for minor insults.
In the interview, Grote also admitted his own mistakes when criticizing partiers in Hamburg’s Schanzenviertel. “If I look back critically, I would say that my tweet may have been a bit too thick in the choice of words given the mistake I made myself,” he said.