After attack on Berlin LGBT Pride, Merz calls “bad jokes” part of violence

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said intolerance, discrimination and “bad jokes” were part of violence against LGBT people during a July 26 memorial service at St. Mary’s Protestant Church in Berlin. He spoke the day after an attack near Berlin’s Christopher Street Day (CSD) Pride event killed one woman and injured 29 people.

In the text of the speech published by the German government , Merz told the queer community: “Intolerance, exclusion, discrimination, stupid remarks and bad jokes are already part of such violence.” The chancellor also said state institutions would do everything permitted under the rule of law to protect the freedom of the country and society.

In the published speech, Merz did not describe “bad jokes” as the cause of the attack or contrast them with its suspected Islamist motive. The remark formed part of a broader address about hostility toward LGBT people; before and after it, the chancellor discussed the attack itself, accountability for those responsible and security measures.

The attack took place at about 10 p.m. on July 25 in Berlin’s Tiergarten park, near the CSD venue. As Tagesschau reported , German Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt described the incident as a suspected Islamist terrorist attack, and the Federal Public Prosecutor took over the investigation. A direct link to CSD had not yet been conclusively established, although authorities considered it likely.

Authorities identified 21-year-old German citizen Abdul Ballout as the suspect. Later on July 26, police shot and killed him during an attempted arrest; police said he ran toward officers with a bladed object. According to the Berlin Public Prosecutor General’s Office , he was sentenced under juvenile law in May to one year and 10 months in prison for preparing a serious act of violence endangering the state and violating a ban under the Associations Act. The judgment was not final. The court found that he had tried to join Islamic State and had published banned propaganda. Official accounts link the suspected motive to Islamist extremism, not to the suspect’s adherence to Islam as a religion.