August 22nd 2023.
Florian Jäger, a former member of Germany's Bundestag, has been fined for a video he posted on Facebook in December of 2021. In the video, he compared the Covid vaccination programme to Nazi crimes and insisted that the 'plight' of unvaccinated people was the same as that of Jews in the Third Reich.
The video also took aim at Germany's Prime Minister Markus Söder, accusing him of using Nazi methods to incite 'popular anger' against those who are not vaccinated. Jäger ended the video with the words "Let's break through that, let's resist, let's take to the streets."
At the court hearing in Munich, prosecutor Andreas Franck argued that Jäger had intentionally sought to incite hatred. Franck noted that if the Holocaust is degraded to an arbitrary object of comparison, it would drag down the protection of Jewish people from antisemitic attacks. He also argued that the video gave vaccination opponents a 'blueprint' with which they can stylize themselves as resistance fighters.
Jäger denied all the allegations against him and said before the court hearing that he had a 'great passion for Israel'. But the court ruled that the comments amounted to incitement of hatred and sentenced him to a fine of €2,700, reduced from €5,400 due to the poor state of his finances.
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