The rainbow flag will not fly above the Bundestag on Saturday, July 26, during Berlin’s Christopher Street Day (CSD), the annual parade in support of LGBTQ+ rights. This decision, which ends a practice that began in 2022, has sparked heated debate in Germany at a time when the far right is gaining ground and attacks against sexual minorities are increasing.
The turning point came in mid-May. Just days after the new government took office, Bundestag President Julia Klöckner, of the Christian Democrat (CDU) party, announced that she would ban the raising of the rainbow flag atop the Bundestag for CSD in the name of neutrality for public buildings and administration, considering it a “political demonstration.” She explained that this symbol of diversity and the fight against discrimination would now only be displayed atop of the building one day a year: on May 17, the International Day Against Homophobia.
Klöckner also banned the “Parliament’s Queer Network,” a group of LGBTQ+ staff, from participating in the CSD parade as a political group. Its members may attend only in a private capacity. In doing so, the Bundestag president broke with the approach of her predecessor, Social Democrat Bärbel Bas, who had herself participated in CSD in 2023 and 2024 and had the flag flown atop the building.
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