Press Statement 2006/34 – Tobias Pflüger (MEP) – Strasbourg, 16th May 2006

Member of the left-wing faction (GUE/NGL) of the European Parliament, Tobias Pflüger, responds to the waiver of his parliamentary immunity by the European Parliament:

Today, a clear majority of the Members of the European Parliament voted for the report from Francesco Speroni of Lega Nord, in which the waiver of my immunity was requested. A broadly based coalition of conservatives, liberals, social democrats, Greens and right-wing extremists made up the majority for this proposal. The GUE/NGL group stood united against this politically motivated waiver of immunity. Some mere few members of other factions had the courage to vote against the recommendation of the faction leadership.

The practice of the European Parliament showed, up until now, an underlying trend not to waive the immunity of Members of the European Parliament in political matters. That basic trend has been reversed by today’s decision and the waiver of immunity has been reduced to a plaything to be implemented against unpopular viewpoints.

The matter dealt with an explicitly political case: I am accused by the Munich Public Prosecution Office of having committed offences during a demonstration, whilst I requested information from police officers about the particulars of an arrested participant of that demonstration. I had identified myself to the officers as a member of the European Parliament. I was reported by two police officers half a year after the alleged offence.

It is the fourth round of preliminary proceedings (1999, 2003, 2004, 2005) placed against me by a particular public prosecutor’s office in Bavaria (“Staatsanwaltschaft München I”) following my participation in the protests against the Munich Conference on Security Policy. I was acquitted by the court in Munich in 1999. The proceedings in 2003 were closed and I was apologised to later by the police force for having been brutally arrested in year 2004.

Today’s decision, made by the majority of the European Parliament, has given the green light to this political persecution. Were a Member of Parliament in Belarus to be continually investigated by a particular public prosecutor’s office due to his participation in protests, the European Parliament would surely have castigated this kind of political persecution. However, in the meantime, double standards have come to make up the usual tools of the trade of the majority in the European Parliament.

The conduct of the social democrats and the Greens is evidence of their incapacity. I would like to expressly thank my faction GUE/NGL and all its members for their considerable support. The erosion of the freedom of opinion and freedom of assembly in Germany and in the EU still continues on, as this case is only one of many.

Of course, I will again participate in the protests against the Munich NATO Security Conference in February 2007. I await the legal proceedings composed as, after all, I have nothing to “accuse” myself of, other than give my support to a demonstrator who had been brutally arrested.

Strasbourg, 16th May 2006