Something seems to be wrong in the EU. If you have been following me here for some time, you should know that I don’t think much of Manfred Weber (see this). So I wasn’t very angry when they said the other day that Parliament wouldn’t propose him for the post of Head of the Commission. But I was very surprised when Frans Timmermanns was also rejected. At first I thought to myself, it may be quite refreshing that not only the proposals of the large groups were waved through, but perhaps someone from the small groups could also come.

Once again in Cologne This Saturday (9th of March 2019) I was at a demonstration in Cologne to demonstrate against upload filters together with Tobske. Unfortunately there weren’t as many people as planned, but the atmosphere was good. I also found it interesting that it started at the train station in Cologne-Deutz with 600 people, but while walking through the city many people from the side streets joined so we were more than 1,000 people.

What caused this? As you may have noticed, several events took place during the last few days. As I briefly indicated yesterday, there is a request by Manfred Weber for this Thursday to postpone the decision on Article 13 until the beginning of this month. This postponement is an attempt to pre-empt the rallies planned for 23 March in many European cities. This behaviour is more than questionable, as it makes it impossible for parts of the citizens to get politically involved.

Demonstration in Berlin Last Saturday I was in Berlin at the demonstration against the upload filters, which will be introduced with article 13. I have already written something about this in my blog several times. And actually I only wanted to share my new video with the impressions here. Appointment was brought forward But in this business, things change all the time. For example, MEP Julia Reda from the Pirates has just announced on Twitter that Manfred Weber has submitted a request to bring forward the vote to pre-empt the many protests on 23rd March.

Demonstrations Short after the Members of the European Parliament have voted for the controversal copyright reform which brings upload filter with it a spontaneous demonstration in Cologne took place with around 1.500 people. Keeping in mind that this was planned in less that two days under the week that is very impressing. Some of the participants are well known in Germany like Sep (PietSmiet), HerrnNewstime, Sturmwaffel, the Marmeladenoma etc.. Most of them were livestreaming which adds round about 20.