The German police will not be allowed to display the national flag during the Eurocup, as has been the tradition until now, following controversial instructions from the Berlin Police Chief, Barbara Slowik. Berlin has a City Council dominated by the Christian Democratic Union (CDU).
What’s intriguing is the reason Slowick gave for such a perplexing decision in statements to Tagesspiegel: “We are committed to neutrality.” Isn’t the national flag, representing the entire country, politically neutral? Should the police also be “footballistically neutral”?
The case becomes more striking at a time when the rainbow flag—completely neutral, as it represents only a minority sector of society—has been displayed practically everywhere, starting with the law enforcement agencies themselves.
A former CDU senator summed up the reaction of many Germans on the social media platform X: “Are black, red, and gold prohibited for Berlin officials at the football event of the year? Who comes up with such nonsense?”
Although he acknowledges that the decision is perfectly legal, Burckard Dregger, a CDU expert, explained to Bild that “our German flag, black, red, and gold, represents unity, law, and freedom and, therefore, exactly the values that Berlin urgently needs at this moment, namely cohesion and identification with Germany, as well as freedom, the rule of law, and democracy.
