Members of the German Greens and Lefts came on Thursday (26.06.2025) to the parliament's deliberations in colorful outfits, sitting to form a rainbow – a symbol of the LGBTQ community. The German Bundestag, at the request of the Greens, debated Thursday about hatred crime against LGBTQ people.
Members' outfits are both a motion of solidarity with this environment and a demonstration of dissatisfaction with the fresh decision of the president of the Bundestag of the Chadese politician Julia Kloeckner and the administration of Parliament.
Kloeckner decided that a rainbow flag would not be displayed over the Reichstag building on July 26 during the Berlin Day (CSD) parade this year. She explained this decision by the fact that the LGBTQ flag had already been issued on 17 May on the occasion of the global Day against Homophobia.
Neutrality of the Bundestag
The CSD parade will besides not be attended by a rainbow network of parliamentary administrative staff. The fresh manager of the Bundestag administration Paul Goettke decided that "especially due to the work of neutrality the Bundestag administration would not participate in political demonstrations and public gatherings". However, employees may participate in the parade privately, but for their authoritative duties.
These decisions have outraged any Members, peculiarly in the fresh attacks on LGBTQ events, specified as Bad Freienwalde in east Brandenburg last week.
“The attack on CSD is always an attack on freedom,” said Nyke Slavik, a transgender Green MP during the debate. “We will not let rainbows to be banned,” she added. However, the president of the Bundestag was not in the plenary during the debate; the session was chaired by her replacement Andrea Lindholz from the CDU.
The EPD Agency Slawik said that Green and Left Members did not agree on Thursday's outfits. “It seems that we had the same idea,” she said. “The more colorful the parliament is, the better”, she added.
