Justice: Buschmann doesn’t believe in a general ban on buying sex

Federal Justice Minister Marco Buschmann does not believe in a ban on the purchase of sex, as Sweden, France and some other European countries have introduced.

When asked whether he supported punishing johns, the FDP politician replied to the German Press Agency: “I think the most important thing is that any exercise of coercion against women must be stopped, so to speak, including through criminal law.” . There are instruments for this in Germany that must also be used. This is where the focus should be.

Part of a planned reform of the criminal code is the deletion of a regulation prohibiting prostitution in restricted areas. The relevant paragraph consists of only one long sentence: “Anyone who persistently violates a ban issued by a legal regulation against engaging in prostitution in certain places or at certain times of the day will be punished with a prison sentence of up to six months or a fine of up to one hundred and eighty daily rates.”

Violating restricted areas may no longer be a crime

If Buschmann’s plan were to be implemented as previously planned, the violation of restricted area regulations could still be punished as an administrative offense. But then it would no longer be a crime.

“It is clear that such restricted area orders can still be issued,” said Buschmann. He explained: “If we imagine that there are areas in municipalities that, if you like, form the living room or that there are areas such as schools or kindergartens that can then be used in an emergency , I think makes sense in the instrument box.” And if there is a restricted area in a municipality, it makes sense to enforce it.

Since 2002, prostitution has no longer been immoral in Germany and is considered a normal business. The red-green coalition at the time wanted to improve the legal and social situation of prostitutes with the prostitution law. However, from the point of view of many experts, the opposite happened. Instead of protecting the victims, the position of the brothel operators, the sex industry and the johns was strengthened. In 2017 the Prostitute Protection Act came along. Above all, it sets commercial law requirements: since then, brothels require an operating license, prostitutes are obliged to register their activity and go to health advice.

The draft reform is expected to come in 2024

At the end of November, Buschmann presented key points for the planned reform of the criminal code, which, among other things, should decriminalize fare evasion. According to him, a concrete draft can probably be expected in the first half of 2024.

“For many years we only had one direction in criminal justice policy: faster, higher, further,” says the FDP politician. The question was never asked as to which old laws were still necessary. The reform now means that “we will either delete or revise many old, outdated regulations from the Criminal Code”.

In September, the European Parliament passed a resolution in which the so-called Nordic model, in which johns have to fear punishment but prostitutes do not, is positively assessed. The decision criticizes the different legislation on these issues in the member states of the European Union because this promotes human trafficking. In Germany, the Union parliamentary group, among others, has supported this proposal.

“The deletion will reduce the protection of young people and the general public from harassment that is intended by the regulation, while at the same time the women affected will continue to be sanctioned under the administrative offense law,” criticized the deputy chairwoman of the Union parliamentary group, Andrea Lindholz. The CSU politician believes that a consistent ban on the purchase of sex would be better. “Germany has developed into Europe’s brothel; women are exploited under the most adverse conditions.” Human trafficking and forced prostitution have reached new dimensions. Organized crime dominates the scene. The German state cannot tolerate this.