Trial in Dresden: Mayor of Dresden insulted as “green fascist”

Dresden – The collapse of the Carola Bridge, expensive traffic experiments, more and more cycle paths. Dresden’s Green mayor for construction Stephan Kühn (45) is regularly under fire. He was dubbed a “green fascist” on the Internet. The author of the post appeared in court on Friday.

Uwe R. (62) is a building contractor and member of the Dresden Homeless association. When a local newspaper reported on the new bike paths on Bautzener Straße in autumn 2022, he lost his temper. He wrote on Facebook: “Road demolition in Dresden … thank you dear Green Fascist Kühn.”

Uwe R. defended himself in the district court: “I cycle 100 to 150 kilometers through the city every day. It always takes me longer, it cannot be that lanes are closed because of a few hundred cyclists. That is a traffic hazard. I was a police officer in the accident service for ten years.”

Riedel’s concerns have fallen on deaf ears with Stephan Kühn, the mayor of the city’s construction department. Shortly before the Carola Bridge collapsed, he had just closed one lane of the bridge to cyclists at a cost of 200,000 euros. A four-month traffic trial was planned. A similar traffic trial on the Loschwitz Bridge had already been abandoned because not only the cars but also the buses were stuck in traffic jams.

I will not be called a fascist

Stephan Kühn: “I won’t let myself be called a fascist. That suggests that we are acting in the manner of a dictatorship. I am only implementing city council decisions. I filed the complaint because we see again and again that words are followed by actions. I want to avoid anyone physically attacking me.”

Kühn was also verbally attacked in connection with the bike path on the Loschwitz Bridge. A caller told his office that they wanted to see him hanged. The criminal proceedings against the caller, who even gave his name, are still ongoing.

Entrepreneur Uwe R. was sentenced by the District Court Dresden because of public Insult sentenced to a fine of 3750 euros. He already has two previous convictions for insult and insult with incitement to hatred.

Richter Tobias Spindler (43): “The term fascist is used to insinuate that the mayor is implementing the green transport policy in a totalitarian and anti-democratic way. Fascist is a nasty insult, which in this case goes far beyond freedom of expression. In your article you have not dealt with transport policy in any objective way, you just throw out one sentence and what sticks in your mind is that Mr. Kühn is a green fascist.”