Following the statements critical of Israel made by some filmmakers during the closing gala of the Berlinale, Bavaria's State Chancellor Florian Herrmann (CSU) has called on Minister of State for Culture Claudia Roth (Greens) to resign due to what he sees as too late a reaction.
"What happened at the Berlinale appalls us greatly," said Herrmann on Tuesday after a cabinet meeting in Munich. "This open anti-Semitism in the cultural scene is appalling and is unacceptable in this form." It is problematic that "in the midst of this, the responsible Federal Minister of Culture, Claudia Roth, is floundering around". "Either she lacks a compass to deal with these things sensibly, or the compass is set incorrectly." In any case, Roth's "repeated failure" to react to such incidents has caused irreparable damage to Germany. "Ms Roth is obviously completely overwhelmed by this task, which is why she has also become unacceptable as Federal Minister of Culture and must resign," said Herrmann.
However, when asked later, he emphasized that there had been no vote on this in the cabinet. This was his personal opinion as media and film minister.
