A gay member of the state parliament, Daniel Born of the SPD, faced no immediate legal consequences after defacing a ballot with a swastika during a confidential vote. The Stuttgart public prosecutor’s office said it would refrain from opening an investigation because there were not sufficient indications of punishable conduct. The report by SWR had previously highlighted the incident.
Born acknowledged that, in the secret ballot, he had drawn a swastika behind the name of an AfD member. Following the incident, he resigned as vice president of the state parliament, announced his departure from the SPD parliamentary group, relinquished his party offices, and said he would not stand again for the chamber. Nonetheless, the 49-year-old jurist stated that he would keep his seat in the state parliament until the end of the legislative term. In a personal statement, he described the act as a “short-circuit reaction” and a “serious mistake.”
The state parliament administration had immediately filed a criminal complaint with the police desk at the parliament, initially naming unknown perpetrators, in the wake of the incident.
The prosecutor’s decision to drop the inquiry rests on the fact that Born did not disseminate, publicize, or otherwise use the swastika in a way that would constitute a punishable act by placing the ballot into the urn.
Regarding a possible insult to AfD deputy Bernhard Eisenhut, the prosecutors will not pursue that matter either, because of the parliament’s immunity. Immunity means that MPs cannot be held responsible for votes or statements made in the state legislature.
