icon bookmark-bicon bookmarkicon cameraicon checkicon chevron downicon chevron lefticon chevron righticon chevron upicon closeicon v-compressicon downloadicon editicon v-expandicon fbicon fileicon filtericon flag ruicon full chevron downicon full chevron lefticon full chevron righticon full chevron upicon gpicon insicon mailicon moveicon-musicicon mutedicon nomutedicon okicon v-pauseicon v-playicon searchicon shareicon sign inicon sign upicon stepbackicon stepforicon swipe downicon tagicon tagsicon tgicon trashicon twicon vkicon yticon wticon fm
29 Feb, 2016 18:16

Activists dressed as clowns throw cake in face of German right-wing party official (VIDEO)

Activists dressed as clowns throw cake in face of German right-wing party official (VIDEO)

Two activists in clown costumes have disrupted a meeting of the German anti-migrant party Alternative for Germany (AfD) by throwing a cake into the face of Beatrix von Storch, one of the party’s leaders and a European Parliament member. 

The men approached von Storch while she was presiding over a closed-door AfD party meeting held in Kassel on February 28. They sang “Happy Birthday” as one of them threw a cake into von Storch’s face and the other filmed the incident.

Von Storch’s fellow party members seized the attackers and called police. The Peng Collective, a culture activism group from Berlin, claimed responsibility for the ‘sweet attack’ and said the ‘clowns’ were “beaten, kicked, arrested and handed over to the police.”

The activists said they were protesting in response to von Storch suggesting police should be allowed to shoot migrant women and children entering Germany illegally.

A statement posted on the group’s website entitled “Tortenbefehl” (Pie order) after the attack says: “Who[ever] wants to prevent the crossing of a moral border, must, if necessary, make use of a cream pie,” in apparent reference to von Storch’s recent comments.

"No activist wants to throw pies at politicians. I do not want that. But cream pies are the last resort. And at the moment, the usage of cakes is the moral dictate of our time. Cake-throwing is the final tool at the border crossing to inhumanity and an urgent expression of direct democracy," said one of the activists explaining the motives behind the attack. 

READ MORE: German police should have right to shoot refugees illegally crossing border – AfD leader

Von Storch denounced the protestors’ actions, referring to them as people who resort to violence as they lack an agenda.

"People with no arguments tear down posters, burn cars and disrupt meetings with pies," said von Storch, as cited by Deutsche Welle.

Alternative for Germany was founded in 2013 as a Euroskeptic party. The group failed to get into the Bundestag in the 2013 parliamentary elections, but gained two seats in the European Parliament a year later. Since the beginning of the refugee crisis in Europe, the party has made extensive use of anti-migrant rhetoric to win popular opinion.

Podcasts
0:00
14:40
0:00
13:8