Christopher Street Day: “Hello, circus!” – Berlin CSD started

No rainbow flag on the Bundestag, but tens of thousands of people on the streets: The Christopher Street Day (CSD) started in Berlin with political demands for better protection against Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU). The motto of this year’s CSD is “never quiet again”. At the beginning, tens of thousands gathered on Leipziger Strasse in Berlin-Mitte.

On signs of the demonstrators and in the speeches at the opening, it was about the political debates about the hoist of the rainbow flag on the Bundestag. Under cheers, Bundestag Vice President Omid Nouripour welcomed the participants with the words “Hello, circus!” – Apparently in alluding to Merz. The latter had the decision of Bundestag President Julia Klöckner (both CDU) not to raise a rainbow flag on the Bundestag for the CSD, defended with the words: “The Bundestag is now not a circus tent.”

Without queer Bundestag network

Unlike in previous years, the queer rainbow network of the Bundestag administration does not participate in the CSD this year. The top of the administrative had prohibited the group. In protest against this decision, some participants had signs with them that said: “Unfortunately we are not there – the rainbow network of the Bundestag administration would have run here”.

According to the police, 30 to 50 people gathered on a counter-demonstration “Against the CSD terror” on the Schöneberg bank at around 11.30 a.m. There were banners of the group “German youth forward”, which the Berlin constitutional protection classifies as a right -wing extremist and violent -oriented. The police secure the demonstration with emergency services and barrier grids.