In an interview with German newspaper Saarbrücker Zeitung, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, minister president of the federal state of Saarland, said allowing same-sex couples to marry would open the door for ‘marriage between close relatives or between more than two people’.
She also opposed equal adoption rights, saying a solution to the issue couldn’t be found by considering ‘whether someone feels discriminated against or not’ but by considering child welfare. Less than 24 hours after the interview was published, Berlin-based lawyer and member of Berlin CSD's board Sissy Kraus announced on her Facebook page that she had filed charges against the minister.
‘At some point it’s just enough,’ Kraus, who is planning to enter a civil partnership in July, said on her posting.
The charges Kraus brought against Kramp-Karrenbauer include incitement of the masses, or hate speech, as well as libel; in the document outlining the charges, she draws a comparison between the minister’s comments and rhetoric used in the Third Reich.
‘In her publicly available comment, the minister president aligns people living in or wanting to enter a partnership and desiring equality in the form of marriage with incest and polygamy,’ Kraus writes.
‘This comment is not just homophobic anymore, but inhuman, and in its content equitable with similarly inhuman statements made 1933 – 1945.’
Kraus also states Kramp-Karrenbauers statements cannot be protected under free speech. ‘The statements’ sole purpose is to express hate for this social group and the people who are part of it,’ Kraus explains. ‘Defamation is the only thing that matters to the minister.’
A spokesperson for the Berlin Prosecuting Attorney’s Office stated they were ensuring the charges reach the correct office in the Saarland, as the charges do not fall under Berlin’s jurisdiction; due to this they were unable to give any more information on possible proceedings.
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