Overview

• Chancellor Friedrich Merz defended Bundestag President Julia Klöckner’s refusal on July 1, declaring the parliamentary building “not a circus tent” for flying the Pride flag.
• Julia Klöckner said she had already raised the rainbow banner on May 17, International Day Against Homophobia, and will not fly it again for the July 26 Berlin PrideSophie.
• Sophie Koch, the government’s LGBTQ commissioner, affirmed that queer Germans are integral to society and that the flag would have demonstrated strong state protection.
• Andre Lehmann, president of the LSVD federation, invoked the Nazi-era persecution of LGBTQ people and condemned Merz’s remark as a significant misstep.
• Government spokesperson Sebastian Hille emphasized that the administration backs the Pride march’s diversity and rights objectives even as the Bundestag leadership withholds the symbol.