- Ronald Schill
Ronald Barnabas Schill (born November 23
1958 inHamburg ) is a formerjudge , the founder of the German political parties "Partei Rechtsstaatlicher Offensive " (also called PRO or Schill-Partei) and "Pro DM/Schill ". He served as a Senator of the Interior in thegovernment of Hamburg from 2001 to 2003.Political career
Schill started his career as a
judge at anAmtsgericht in Hamburg from1993 to2001 . Due to his controversial rulings as a judge, which frequently involved the maximum penalty, he was given the nickname "Richter Gnadenlos" ("judge merciless"); [Citation |title=Hamburg Journal; 'Judge Merciless' Thinks All Germany Needs Him |url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C04E3DF103BF930A15752C0A9649C8B63 |date=2002-01-23 |accessdate=2008-09-21 |last=Erlanger |first=Steven |publisher=The New York Times ] most of these rulings were overruled by higher courts later on.His new-found right-conservative party managed to gain 19.4% of all votes in the elections for Hamburg's parliament, the "Bürgerschaft", on September 23
2001 .Following the elections, his party entered into acoalition government with the CDU led byOle von Beust . Schill became secondmayor of Hamburg and senator for inner affairs; among other things, he announced that he would lowercrime rates by 50% within 100 days, an undertaking which remained unsuccessful.Controversies
As a politician, Schill managed to get considerable media attention with his radical positions; among other things, he spoke out for the legalization of
cannabis , demanded thatsex offender s who did not respond to therapy be castrated, and stated that parents who failed to bring up their children "the right way" should be jailed. Furthermore, following the siege of theMoscow theater in October2002 , where 129 of 800 hostages where killed bynerve gas , he proposed that similar gas should be used by German police to fightterrorism .Shortly after assuming office, Schill was anonymously accused of
cocaine abuse. He voluntarily underwenthair analysis which did not yield any evidence of cocaine consumption, and after the findings had been made public, the prosecution authorities stopped their proceedings against Schill.Schill managed to cause a stir and a wave of indignation throughout the whole of
Germany when he spoke in front of theBundestag , Germany's federal parliament, in the final session of the 14th Bundestag onAugust 29 ,2002 . In his speech, he said that the victims of theElbe flood would not be able to be compensated due to too much money being given to foreign countries; he also berated politicians of all parties, his speech culminating in the words "We (in Germany) without doubt [...] have the most capable people, but the most incompetent politicians" ("Wir haben (in Deutschland) ohne Zweifel die tüchtigsten Menschen, aber [...] die unfähigsten Politiker"). [cite journal|url=http://dip.bundestag.de/btp/14/14251.pdf|journal=Plenarprotokolle des Deutschen Bundestages|title=Plenarprotokoll 14/251 - Stenographischer Bericht, 251. Sitzung|author=Staff stenographers|pages=p. 34 sect. B|format=PDF] He further reviled politicians by stating that they wasted money, went through the world with a "goblet of charity" to give away German tax money, broughtrefugee s into the country and build "glamourous solitary cells" for prisoners; after accusing the parliament's vice president Anke Fuchs of violating the constitution, already over his time quota, he first was warned, then asked to finish his speech, and finally had themicrophone turned off 15 minutes after the end of his timeshare. [cite journal|url=http://dip.bundestag.de/btp/14/14251.pdf|journal=Plenarprotokolle des Deutschen Bundestages|title=Plenarprotokoll 14/251 - Stenographischer Bericht, 251. Sitzung|author=Staff stenographers|pages=pp. 32–34|format=PDF]Removal as senator
In the summer of
2003 he made headlines again when another government official, Walter Wellinghausen, who held the office of a "Staatsrat" and was supported by Schill, was accused of illegally having a second employment; finally, Schill was removed from office by first mayorOle von Beust (CDU) onAugust 19 ,2003 , due to "not being qualified (for the position) with regard to his character" ("charakterlich nicht geeignet").This was preceded by a private discussion between von Beust and Schill, in which von Beust announced his intent to remove Wellinghausen from office. According to von Beust, Schill then threatened to make public an alleged love affair between von Beust and judiciary senator Roger Kusch (CDU), which would have resulted in a conflict of interests on von Beust's side.Citation |url=http://www.citymayors.com/politics/hamburg_election.html |title=Mayor von Beust to govern alone after victory in Hamburg election |accessdate=2008-08-13 |work= |publisher=Deutsche Welle | publication-date =2004 |date= ]
Schill, on the other hand, told the press that he only had appealed to von Beust to not apply double standards, claiming that he mentioned the case of his fellow party member Mario Mettbach, who cancelled his decision to hire his significant other as an abstractor; he further stated that this collided with von Beust's making Kusch a senator and that the public had a right to be informed about these issues. Kusch publicly admitted to being
homosexual soon afterwards; von Beust, however, did not comment further on his sexuality, pointing out that his sexual orientation was a private issue alone.Schill's removal from office was appreciated by many organizations, including the churches and the police union, even though Schill continued to be a member of Hamburg's "Bürgerschaft".
On December 6,
2003 , the federal executive board of the "Partei Rechtsstaatlicher Offensive ", led byMario Mettbach , removed Schill from his office as the party's chairman for Hamburg and denied him the right to assume further offices in the party. In response, Schill publicly ridiculed the party's executive board, stating that he could just as well have been removed from office by his haircutter.Three days later, von Beust declared the coalition of CDU, FDP and Schill Party to be terminated and asked the parliament to order new elections. Another week later, on
December 16 2003 , the Schill Party's federal executive board decided to expel Schill from the party; at the time of this writing, Schill has not yet decided whether to challenge this decision at the party's court of arbitration.On December 18,
2003 , Schill, together with five former members of the Schill Party faction in the "Bürgerschaft", formed a new faction; his former partner, Katrin Freund, was elected chairwoman. He announced that if he did not manage to get 5% of all votes in the forthcoming parliamentary elections (and thus not be present in the new parliament), he would emigrate fromGermany . [cite news|title=Bei Wahlniederlage will Schill auswandern|publisher=Berliner Zeitung|page=6|date=2003-12-20|url=http://www.berlinonline.de/berliner-zeitung/archiv/.bin/dump.fcgi/2003/1220/politik/0258/index.html]In the elections, on
February 29 ,2004 , his group won only 3.1% of the votes [cite web|url=http://fhh.hamburg.de/stadt/Aktuell/wahl/buergerschaftswahlen/2004/ergebnis-pdf,property=source.pdf|publisher=Stadt Hamburg|title=Landesergebnis der Bürgerschaftswahl 2004|accessdate=2006-12-27|format=PDF] dead link|url=url=http://fhh.hamburg.de/stadt/Aktuell/wahl/buergerschaftswahlen/2004/ergebnis-pdf,property=source.pdf|date=August 2008. He confirmed that he would emigrate, "probably toSouth America ." [cite web|url=http://www.spiegelgruppe.de/spiegelgruppe/home.nsf/PMWeb/887FB6F6394FB614C1256F950041C238|title=Schill wird Schriftsteller in Südamerika|publisher=SPIEGEL ONLINE|author=Staff writer|accessdate=2006-12-27|date=2004-04-15]ince 2004
In fall 2004, he emigrated to
Cuba .In late 2006, Hamburg police issued a search warrant for Schill, as he is to testify as a witness in front of a Hamburg state parliament board of inquiry.
As of December 2006 , Schill was thought to be in theRio de Janeiro area. [cite web|url=http://www.spiegel.de/politik/deutschland/0,1518,452123,00.html|title=Ex-Senator Schill zur Fahndung ausgeschrieben|date=2006-12-02|accessdate=2006-12-26|author=Philipp Wittrock|publisher=SPIEGEL ONLINE] In December 2007 he appeared inItzehoe and was ordered to testify in front of the aforementioned board. [ [http://www.sueddeutsche.de/panorama/artikel/714/162266/ Kokain und Hasstiraden] , "Sueddeutsche Zeitung ", 7 March 2008. de icon]In March 2008, the German tabloid "
Bild " reported that they were in possession of a video showing Schill consuming cocaine in Brazil. In the video he stated that as a judge he had regularly meted out harsher punishments to blacks, whom he disliked intensely. He also stated that his first cocaine test in 2001 yielded a positive result, but a retest with a less sensitive method then gave the desired negative result. Excerpts of this video were made available onYouTube . [ [http://www.bild.de/BILD/news/vermischtes/2008/03/07/ronald-schill/skandal-politiker-beim-koksen-gefilmt,geo=3951708.html Ronald Schill beim Koksen gefilmt!] , "Bild", 7 March 2008. de icon]References
Further reading
* [http://www.ftd.de/db/mu/1061019386598.html?nv=rs Biography]
* [http://www.sonntagsblatt.de/artikel/1999/51/51-s5.htm Schill as a judge; an article from the "Sonntagsblatt"]
* [http://www.planet-interview.de/interviews/pi.php?interview=schill-ronald An interview with Schill at planet-interview.de (2001)]
* [http://www.spiegel.de/politik/deutschland/0,1518,279244,00.html "Vote for me or I'll emigrate"; an article from "Der Spiegel" (in German)]
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