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A Senator's priorities in Berlin


Berlin's Justice Senator Kreck (Left Party) gives an insight into her highly ideological understanding of the law

For months, so-called climate activists have been causing traffic chaos in Berlin by blocking the roads. After the opposition in the House of Representatives criticized the fact that, despite a large number of investigations, there were still no charges, let alone convictions, Berlin's Senator for Justice Lena Kreck (Left Party) recently spoke out vehemently against interference in the work of the law enforcement authorities. "We live in a constitutional state with a separation of powers, so political influence on judges and law enforcement agencies has no place."

Berlin's Senator for Justice showed significantly less restraint when it came to allegations against security guards who were deployed at "Christopher Street Day". At the "biggest queer demonstration in the capital" security personnel with alleged Nazi tattoos are said to have been deployed to two floats of the parade.

Measuring with double standards
Local newspapers reported that visitors to the "Christopher Street Day" saw at least two of the deployed security personnel have the "Black Sun" symbol tattooed on their bodies. The “Black Sun”, sometimes also known as the sun wheel, is a symbol consisting of three superimposed swastikas or twelve mirrored victory goons set in a ring. The gay counseling center in Berlin and the association "Bunte Variety e.V.", the operators of the two cars concerned, were shocked after the allegations became known and demand clarification from the security companies commissioned.

Kreck also spoke up. At the gay counseling center she urged "that appropriate measures be taken". Kreck, who holds a triple portfolio, probably spoke up in her capacity as Senator for Diversity and Antidiscrimination. However, as a senator for justice, she also has more influence than her statements on the independence of the judiciary in the long-lasting investigations against the climate extremists blocking the streets suggest. In fact, German criminal procedural law knows no "independence of the judiciary" at all, but provides for the independence of the judges. In Germany, the possibility of politicians to issue instructions to the law enforcement authorities is so great that the European Court of Justice (ECJ) came to the conclusion in May 2019 that German public prosecutors lacked the necessary independence to issue a European arrest warrant. In their reasoning, the judges in Luxembourg directly criticized the right of the German justice ministers and senators to give instructions in individual cases. The federal government then announced a solution that conforms to EU law. Irrespective of this, politicians have had various options for setting general accents in criminal prosecution.

In 2016, for example, when he was Federal Minister of Justice at the time, the SPD politician Heiko Maas suggested that his country colleagues set up public prosecutors to specifically deal with right-wing extremist violent crime. The justice ministers and senators can also make use of a reporting obligation. When there was increasing xenophobic violence in Brandenburg in the years after the peaceful revolution, for example, the public prosecutors were temporarily obliged by ministerial decree to report such cases.

"Black Sun" is not forbidden
The effect of such a regulation can certainly be that, in cases of doubt, public prosecutors tend to be more reluctant to drop or postpone investigations on the grounds of a lack of public interest or insignificance. Last but not least, politicians can also try to set priorities by selecting personnel at the head of the law enforcement agency. In 2017, for example, Berlin's current chief prosecutor, Margarete Koppers, was proposed to the then red-red-green Senate by the then Green Justice Senator Dirk Behrendt. In the reporting, whether in the Süddeutsche Zeitung, Focus, Berliner Zeitung or the taz, there is always the reference that Berlin's Attorney General is "close to the Greens".

In the case of the tattoos at this year's "Christopher Street Day", the options for Behrend's successor, at least as a Senator for Justice, are likely to be quite limited. As Kreck, as a fully qualified lawyer, probably knows himself or can quickly find out through research, showing the symbol “Black Sun” is not a criminal offense in this country, as a request from members of the Bundestag from the Left Party had already shown.

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