German politicians got together and decided that they wanted a civil place to operate. So they've invented these rules to be used in the Bundestag....and if you were doing something stupid or insulting someone....you could face up to 3,000 Euro in fines (roughly $4000).
It's a curious thing. They've had some far left-wing folks appear in the Bundestag lately....protesting about the German troops in Afghanistan. They wore t-shirts while on the floor, and even held protest signs about the war involvement.
Interestingly enough....both CDU and SPD members are agreed that the fine was necessary. It hasn't passed yet....but it appears to have enough votes to make it happen. This is supposed to "fix" the Bundestag.
I paused and thought about this. It renders freedom of speech a bit of a blow. You can't wear a t-shirt into the Bundestag with anti-whatever slogans. You'd have to dress right, talk right, and behave right.
The more I thought about it....it'd be nice to have that kind of rule in the US congress and senate. No more insulting and no crazy antics. Course, we Americans would never go this far.
I suspect that someone will challenge this immediately and then spend two years running via the German court system to prove that they have the right to still do stupid things. My guess is that the court might agree with them. Then the next day....all of the nicely behaved Germans would show up in a t-shirt that had some Nazi symbol to demonstrate to the court that rules might be necessary. That's typically the way that folks make a point in Germany.
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