Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania's Prime Minister Manuela Schwesig (SPD) failed at the first attempt to have the Hamburg CDU chairman Christoph Ploß ban a statement about her alleged attitude to the Baltic Sea gas pipeline Nord Stream 2 and to Russia by means of an injunction.
In an urgent procedure, the Hamburg Regional Court rejected an application on Tuesday.
Government spokesman Andreas Timm confirmed on Tuesday evening that such a decision had been made.
The reasoning of the court will be examined and then it will be decided whether to appeal against it.
The way before the Higher Regional Court is open to Schwesig.
The legal magazine "Legal Tribune Online" had previously reported on the rejection of the application (Az.: 324 O 53/22).
Schwesig saw her rights violated by a verbal attack by the CDU politician on the ZDF talk show “Markus Lanz” at the beginning of February.
With regard to the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, Ploß claimed that Schwesig said about Russian aggression against Ukraine: “These violations of international law do not interest me.
The main thing is that the pipeline goes into operation.” Schwesig denied having made such a statement and had taken legal action against Ploß.
In a warning, Schwesig's lawyers asked him to stop making the statement.
Because Ploß did not want to comply, the dispute went to court.
Judges evaluate statements as exaggerated expressions of opinion
As "Legal Tribune Online" reported, citing a spokesman for the court, the judges did not see Ploß's statement in its context as a reproduction of a quote from Schwesig, but as an exaggerated expression of political opinion.
In his speech, Ploß used the phrase that someone was saying something, not only with regard to Schwesig, but also in relation to Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
This alone makes it clear that this is a stylistic device to summarize political positions and not a literal reproduction, it said.
In addition, there were also sufficient connecting facts for the expression of opinion, because Schwesig had advocated a speedy commissioning of the gas pipeline in public statements.
After the escalation in the Ukraine conflict, the federal government put the controversial Nord Stream 2 pipeline on hold on Tuesday.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) spoke of a fundamentally different situation.
Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) said that approval for Nord Stream 2 had been stopped for the time being.
The geopolitical situation makes a reassessment of the project absolutely necessary.
The attitude of the federal government also joined Schwesig via Twitter.
“The Russian government has broken international law.
I view this conflict with the utmost concern," Schwesig wrote on Tuesday.