DThe “Black Lives Matter” protests finally arrived in Germany at the weekend. 15,000 people gathered on Alexanderplatz in Berlin to demonstrate against racism, in Frankfurt there were 8,000 people. Anne Will discussed the events of the past two weeks in the United States with her guests – and how Donald Trump fueled them.
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Norbert Röttgen is a foreign policy expert at the CDU
Source: NDR / Wolfgang Borrs
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George Floyd was murdered by police officers in Minneapolis 15 days ago while his smartphone camera was running. Since then, America has been debating structural racism, and there are now protests against police violence and racism in over 140 US cities. Since there are always riots, US President Donald Trump threatened to send the military to hot spots.
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But that should only be another fire accelerator, not a fire extinguisher. Isn’t Trump himself responsible for the current situation? Anne Will wanted to know this from her guests Norbert Röttgen (CDU), Cem Özdemir (Greens), Alice Hasters, Christoph von Marschall, Samira El Ouassil and Stefan Simons.
Net applause for the guest list
After last week’s criticism of Sandra Maischberger and Markus Lanz, who initially only invited white people to their talk shows on the subject of racism, Anne Will showed how to do it better.
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Anne Will discussed racism and police violence in the United States with her guests
Source: NDR / Wolfgang Borrs
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With the African-German author Alice Hasters, the columnist Samira El Ouassil and the Green Member of the Bundestag Cem Özdemir, three people were present, whose families have a migration background. The diverse cast was not only good for the talk itself – the show also received a lot of praise for it on the Internet.
The question of the evening
It’s not that before George Floyd’s death, there was no structural racism, racially motivated police violence, or even looting at demonstrations in the United States. On the contrary – if you think back to the events after the murder of the black youth Michael Brown in Ferguson in 2014, very similar images come to mind.
So what does Trump have to do with the current situation, the moderator from Alice Hasters wanted to know: “It is not for nothing that the protests are so strong and huge this time. Trump plays a role here – because there is currently no manager who mediates and unites, ”said the journalist. She believes that the “Black Lives Matter” movement will lead to a real change this time.
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Book author and podcaster Alice Hasters: “There is currently a lack of a leader who mediates and unites”
Source: NDR / Wolfgang Borrs
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In the later course of the show, Samira El Ouassil added Hasters’ statement with an important point: Of course there was not suddenly more racism in the USA, but it was much easier to see through mobile phone videos and social media.
“Four months of a corona pandemic, four years of Trump, 400 years of racism, and that in combination with the videographic material that provides the evidence. The escalation is already inevitable. “
The number of the evening
Stefan Simons, long-time US correspondent for Deutsche Welle, added live from Washington D.C., can report on this escalation. The journalist is always on the demonstrations with his camera team. Simons was already attacked by the US police, even though he was wearing a vest with the “Press” label clearly recognizable.
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He and his team are by no means an isolated case: “In the last week alone there have been 279 attacks only against the press,” said Simons, “in 2019 as a whole there were only 150.”
Trump is jointly responsible for this enormous increase, Simons believes: “If the president pounds people’s heads that we are the lying press and the enemy of the people, this of course has an effect. And that also has an effect on the police. “
The counter of the evening
Norbert Röttgen, who continues to run for the CDU chairmanship, does not believe that the German police or even society as a whole shares similar views. “We are not the USA on this issue.” Germany does not have this interweaving of racism and parts of the state, according to Röttgen.
At the same time, the member of the Bundestag also says that it is wrong to speak of individual cases. After all, they would not fall from the sky, but would also be embedded in society.
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Norbert Röttgen (CDU): “We are not the USA on this issue”
Source: NDR / Wolfgang Borrs
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“I wonder if you say that there are no isolated cases, but there is no institutionalized racism, what is it then?” Asks Alice Hasters Röttgen with a confused expression. Hit sunk: The supposed question of understanding the length of the CDU politician’s speech is a harmless counterattack. Röttgen is short of explanation.
The central conclusion of the program
The member of the Bundestag is more certain about another topic: No matter how dramatic the situation in the United States is at the moment, one thing should always be kept in mind, says Norbert Röttgen: “If elections were not in five months but the day after tomorrow, then there would be Trump will be voted out. But the point is: the world has changed three times in the past five months, ”said the CDU politician.
Therefore, one cannot yet foresee what effects the protests and the corona crisis will have on Trump’s election opportunities in November. Although his approval ratings have reached the lowest level to date – he was not yet ruined, Röttgen explained on the program.
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