Union parliamentary group vice-president Dorothee Bär is in favor of banning the purchase of sex in order to better protect affected women. “The situation of prostitutes in Germany is dramatic. We urgently need a paradigm change: a ban on buying sex in Germany,” said the CSU politician to “Bild”. According to their estimate, there are currently around 250,000 prostitutes nationwide. Most come from abroad, only a fraction are officially registered. “Germany has developed into the brothel of Europe. Germany is now also very attractive worldwide as a country for sex tourism,” said Bär.
She advocated the introduction of the “Nordic model” like in Sweden, where buyers of sex services are punished and not prostitutes. “The example of Sweden shows that with a ban on buying sex, the number of prostitutes drops dramatically.”
Since the introduction of the Prostitution Act in 2002, prostitution in Germany is no longer immoral, but a normal business. The red-green coalition at the time wanted to use the law to improve the legal and social situation of prostitutes – but from an expert perspective, the opposite effect sometimes occurred.
According to a study presented in June, the position of brothel operators, the sex industry and johns has instead been strengthened. The authors of this study also advocate the “Nordic model”. Women’s rights activists have been calling for a ban on buying sex in Germany for years.
