Status: 10/24/2021 5:34 p.m.
The “Pimmelgate” controversy surrounding Interior Senator Andy Grote (SPD) continues to concern the Hamburg police. Now it’s about a poster in the Schanzenviertel.
Officials painted over a meter-high poster on the outside wall of the Rote Flora on Sunday morning, on which the Senator for the Interior had been insulted since Saturday. “Andy, you are so 1 dick” was written on it – just like on stickers that were last removed near Grote’s apartment on St. Pauli. At the top of the poster you can read “Soko wall and paint”, the rest is now whitewashed in black.
The dispute was triggered by a tweet sent to Grote in May on Twitter with the wording “You’re so 1 dick”. It came from the account of a fan bar not far from the FC St. Pauli Stadium in response to a tweet from Grote in which he described people as “ignorant” who celebrated in the Schanzenviertel despite Corona. At the beginning of the pandemic, Grote himself celebrated his renewed appointment to the Interior Senator in disregard of the Corona rules in a pub – and according to media reports he had to pay a fine of 1,000 euros for this.
Trouble about the apartment search
However, the matter only became a “pimmelgate” online when the public prosecutor’s office had the home of the alleged author of the tweet ransacked in September after Grote had filed a criminal complaint for insult. Thousands of people criticized the action on Twitter as completely disproportionate and excessive, with the resentment also related to the behavior of the police and prosecutors. The alleged author of the offensive tweet, however, received a lot of support.
Investigations against unknown
Since the beginning of October, strangers have been distributing almost 40 yellow stickers with the slogan “Andy, you are so 1 dick” in the vicinity of the Senator’s apartment on St. Pauli. The police also removed this on the one hand in order to avert danger, as there was a suspicion of insult, and on the other hand to preserve evidence, the police said. The police state security is investigating the matter against unknown persons.
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