Saskia Weishaupt (born 20 September 1993) is a German politician for

The Greens The Greens or Greens may refer to: Current political parties * Australian Greens, also known as ''The Greens'' * Greens of Andorra * Greens of Bosnia and Herzegovina * Greens of Burkina * Greens (Greece) * Greens of Montenegro *Greens of Serbia *G ...

and since 2021 member of the

Bundestag The Bundestag (, "Federal Diet") is the German federal parliament. It is the only federal representative body that is directly elected by the German people. It is comparable to the United States House of Representatives or the House of Commons ...

, the federal diet.

Life and politics

Weishaupt was born 1994 in the German city of

Hanover Hanover (; german: Hannover ; nds, Hannober) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Lower Saxony. Its 535,932 (2021) inhabitants make it the 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-largest city in Northern Germany ...

and studied

politics Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that studies ...

. Weishaupt was elected to the Bundestag in 2021.

Controversy

In a tweet on 22 December 2021, Weishaupt called on the police to use

pepper spray Pepper spray, oleoresin capsicum spray, OC spray, capsaicin spray, or capsicum spray is a lachrymatory agent (a compound that irritates the eyes to cause a burning sensation, pain, and temporary blindness) used in policing, riot control, cr ...

and batons against a "Querdenker" demonstration in Munich. The demonstration had been cancelled by the organisers. Nevertheless, up to 5,000 participants gathered. Eleven arrests were made. In response to Weishaupt's tweet, the hashtag #SchlagstockSaskia trended on

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, with predominantly right-wing criticism from AfD member of parliament Jürgen Braun, among others. Police unionist Manuel Ostermann from Münsterland also criticised Green politician Weishaupt's tweet: "I dread to see you take responsibility. Arm yourself rhetorically. It's obviously about time." Weishaupt deleted her tweet and apologised, saying she "unfortunately had not been able to present the context in the tweet."

References

Living people People from Hanover 1993 births 21st-century German politicians Members of the Bundestag 2021–2025 {{Germany-Greens-politician-stub