In a Facebook comment that has since gone viral, Reding had announced that he would “travel to South Africa” to bring back “gentle omicron for free” and that he would be “on strike” from now on.
Etgen stated that when he first saw Reding’s comment, he thought it was a fake.
Talking to our colleagues from RTL.lu, Etgen said that as President of the Chamber of Deputies, he is responsible for the health of all 60 MPs and thus condemns the statement made by Reding. Etgen went on to say that it is “reckless” to downplay the virus and the danger it presents to society on social media, describing Reding’s comment as “irresponsible” behaviour for an MP.
While there will be no official sanctions against Reding, Etgen demanded a clarification from the adr whether or not the MP will continue his parliamentary work, seeing as he announced to go on strike. Roy Reding is the president of the Parliamentary Regulations Commission, which has to pass “several adjustments” before the end of the year, Etgen stressed. However, adr MP Fernand Kartheiser has confirmed that Reding will continue to fulfil his obligations.
Reding himself has also reacted to the controversy, which also includes other comments in which the MP calls on people to “resist” and “fight back”. The MP defended himself by arguing that he is calling for “peaceful protest” against the “completely disproportionate measures”.
When asked whether he thinks a minority should be able to dictate its agenda to the majority, Reding stressed that “basic rights” must be protected, adding that if any other minority was ostracised in this way “everyone would say this is racism, this is a religion being marginalised or God knows what”. The MP went on to say that it is unacceptable that “a majority terrorises a minority in this way […] takes away their existence […] locks them in, ostracises them from social life, this has nothing to do with democracy”.
Talking about his experience as a lawyer, Reding stated that he has seen many situations in which people “just snap” because they do not see any other way out of their situation.
Regarding the fact that the Telegram group, in which Reding posted his call for resistance, also features several radical statements, the MP stated that “you shouldn’t beat yourself up over the fact that there are a couple of extremists, people need to express themselves”.
Nevertheless, Reding criticised recent protests against the Covid-19 measures in front of the private homes of two ministers, stating that this is just as unjustified as criticism against private comments or posts on social media. With the latter, Reding refers to the post in which he mentions bringing back the virus from South Africa and going on strike. The MP explains that he made that post on his private Facebook page “in a state of utter discontentment”. Reding also clarified that he is on strike “in relation to the Covid-19 measures”, but not in relation to his various political mandates which he will continue to fulfil. Finally, Reding added that “a lot of healthcare workers” allegedly share his opinions.
