Burning An EU Flag Or That Of Another Country Is Now Punishable By Up To Three Years In Jail In Germany

Protesters burning an EU flag in Cyprus in 2013

BBC: Burning EU and other flags can now bring German jail term

Germany has made public burning of the EU flag or that of another country punishable by up to three years in jail, classing it as a hate crime.

The vote in the Bundestag (parliament) on Thursday makes defiling foreign flags equal to the crime of defiling the German flag.

The same applies for the EU anthem, Beethoven's Ode to Joy theme.

The move followed Social Democrat (SPD) complaints about protesters' burning of the Israeli flag in Berlin in 2017.

Justice Minister Christine Lambrecht, a member of the centre-left SPD, said "burning flags publicly has nothing to do with peaceful protests". She said it stoked up "hatred, anger and aggression", and hurt many people's feelings.

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Update #1: 'It is NOT peaceful protest' Anyone burning EU flag faces PRISON in Germany - new law (Express)
Update #2: Germany Criminalizes Burning of E.U. and Other Foreign Flags (New York Times)

WNU Editor: Does that include the U.S. flag?