Magdeburg (dpa/sa) - Saxony-Anhalt's Interior Minister Tamara Zieschang (CDU) has defended the work of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution in the state parliament. In doing so, she rejected the accusation by the AfD parliamentary group that freedom of expression was not respected. Having a different opinion and expressing criticism of the state is legitimate, said Zieschang. "Vaccination opponents or those who refuse to wear masks have no relevance to the work of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution." However, if protests are used to delegitimize the state, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution is called upon to act.
The CDU politician said that this includes the assumption that you live in a dictatorship. This would shake confidence in the existing constitutional order. In addition, tyranny of authoritarian-repressive systems would be played down, said Zieschang.
According to the Interior Minister, the task of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution is to distinguish between citizens who legitimately took part in the protests and those actors who used these protests to delegitimize the state.
The deputy Matthias Büttner (AfD) from Stassfurt had previously made it clear that, in his view, the statutory mandate of the constitutional protection authority was increasingly being overlooked. Büttner said he was afraid for freedom of expression and compared the work of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution with reprisals in the GDR.
Several MPs rejected Büttner's account. SPD domestic politician Rüdiger Erben said that the limit for activities of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution runs where there is skepticism towards the state.
