Scandal deepens: Domestic intelligence service conducted European-wide search for MLPD party leadership

For at least half a year, starting on 3 December 2019, all three were on the wanted list in the entire Schengen area. And this was done by all kinds of state services, police, border guards, etc. With that, the separation rule of secret services and police apparatus, an important conclusion from Hitlerite fascism, is led to the absurd.

By means of this anticommunist procedure, leading representatives of the MLPD are being defamed, spied upon and criminalized, and the whole party is to be targeted. The MLPD is an authorized and constitutionally protected democratic party. Gabi Fechtner, Monika Gärtner-Engel and Stefan Engel have never been convicted by any German court. The background is that since 2018, those in power, at that time with the CDU/CSU/SPD government and Interior Minister Seehofer in charge, had initiated a concrete change of tactics against the MLPD. This was evidently a reaction to the MLPD's new role in society. For example, in its report on 2018, the so-called Office for the Protection of the Constitution had made an explicit "reassessment" of the MLPD and warned of its potential. This procedure has taken on a new quality with the alerts on wanted persons and further actions. The MLPD has gone on the offensive against all accusations and has also won in court in all cases so far. So, for example, the administrative court Meiningen declared on 3 August 2021 that the treatment of Stefan Engel as a dangerous person was illegal.

The responsible lawyer of the law firm Meister und Partner, Frank Jasenski, clarifies the background of the search alert: "The justification of the domestic intelligence service in its document of January 2022 is bizarre: 'The alert was also appropriate' 'because of the international networking at the leadership level' with Kurdish and Turkish allegedly 'terrorist organizations'. The work of Kurdish and Turkish revolutionaries is directed against the fascist regime of President Erdogan. This is justified and not 'terrorism'.

The so-called 'indications' for this can hardly be surpassed in meagerness: the Office for the Protection of the Constitution justified the necessity of the search by claiming that a solidarity visit to Kurdish hunger strikers (which was not even conducted by the party leadership itself) or public events on books by Stefan Engel in the Netherlands in 2015 (!). What is going on here, when something like this is already declared to be support for international terrorism?"

Six months later, the search measures were officially lifted because not a single questionable incident could be detected. Nevertheless, the information on the wanted list remained in the INPOL surveillance files.

In addition to the search alert, there are more outrageous methods of criminalizing leaders of the MLPD. In the past, Gabi Fechtner was accused of illegally serving alcohol, resisting enforcement officers and "freeing prisoners", all without any evidence. She is currently also being prosecuted for "unauthorized carrying of weapons" because of her mere participation in an activity on the streets during the election campaign of the Internationalist List/MLPD on 30 August 2021 in Essen, which did not require a permit and was, of course, peaceful. In the respective proceedings, none of these allegations were seriously pursued, let alone could they withstand judicial review. All of these accusations were struck down or acquittals were given. Nevertheless, data on Gabi Fechtner could still be accessed by normal police units during police operations against her in the 2021 election campaign. In the meantime, we also know that Monika Gärtner-Engel's INPOL file still contains all allegations that have long since been refuted by the courts.

"There is a method to this," says lawyer Frank Jasenski: "They want to accumulate and store even the most abstruse accusations against our clients, some of which can be viewed by any police officer - so that in the end it remains that we are dealing with serious criminals and dangerous terrorists, against whom, as is well known, everything seems permissible. Yet not a single accusation made even remotely corresponds to reality."

Today, at least in progressive public opinion, reactionary currents such as fascism, racism, anti-Semitism, misogyny, homophobia, etc. are largely ostracized. For this reason, there is justifiably a great deal of awareness against state oppression and deprivation of basic rights among media professionals. This must also apply to anticommunism - which, however, remains a kind of state religion in Germany to this day. More critical engagement and civil courage are needed here, also in the media.

The traffic light coalition and especially Interior Minister Nancy Faeser had publicly announced that in the future the main thrust would be against fascist and ultra-right forces. But why do this criminalization and defamation continue? Is the anticommunist Seehofer line being pursued here secretly?

Gabi Fechtner: "I demand our complete rehabilitation! The initiators can be prepared for further offensive action by the MLPD and its supporters. It must not be allowed that people are spied on, defamed and criminalized because of their communist world view. In the interest of all democratic people, one must resist the beginnings."

We have a variety of material on all of this that should be of interest to journalists.

(1) International Coordination of Revolutionary Parties and Organizations (www.icor.info)

Links:

Information on the wanted notice against Stefan Engel:

Informationen zur Fahndungsausschreibung gegen Stefan Engel

Video about the won trial of Stefan Engel against his dangerous person classification:

Video zum gewonnen Prozess von Stefan Engel gegen seine Gefährder-Einstufung

Video presentation of Gabi Fechtner:

Video-Vorstellung von Gabi Fechtner