Vacation in Europe: This Week The State of Hesse, Germany!

[Osterbaum]

Article/Blog post.

Selected quotes:

As debate spilled over into a shouting match in the Hessian State Parliament concerning the effective ban of Blockupy protests this 16-19 May in Frankfurt am Main, the administrative decision that effected this ban has come to light. The key finding being that:

The blockade action cannot be assessed as peaceful. To make blockades and hinder traffic with the goal of closing down the entire financial district and the everyday life of the metropolis, has to be defined as violence.

The decision continues:

Furthermore, in order that “European legal obligations” be guaranteed, the European Central Bank “must be functional, especially in times of financial crisis around the clock”. This includes things like “the operation of large-value payment system TARGET2?.

Yet it is not simply temporal laws which the Frankfurt authorities are bringing to bear against Blockupy. Indeed, spiritual laws have also been cited as the reason for banning a proposed “rave” for young demonstrators during the weekend. The weekend 16-19 May is Ascension Weekend (Himmelsfahrt) and the Church requires that public peace reign on these solemn days; in particular, there is a general ban on dancing.

And my favourite part:

[...]when Left Party (Die Linke) delegate to the Hessian State Parliament, Willi Van Ooyen, began a passionate defence of Blockupy in Wiesbaden, an unidentified CDU member shouted “Oh, Marx would be very proud of you!”. Van Ooyen calmly responded: “I would like to think so, yes”.

So yup. Enough of these kinds of decisions and we'll be closer to a revolution at each step. I hope. Welcome to Europe everyone!

e: I'm searching and I haven't found any news site reporting on this in english or finnish, so take that as you will. Perhaps one of our German posters might be able to find a German-language source?