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Merkel condemns xenophobic riots after killing of German man Merkel condemns xenophobic riots after killing of German man
(about 3 hours later)
The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, has condemned far-right protesters for “hunting down” foreigners in street mobs following the killing of a German man, allegedly by a Syrian and an Iraqi. The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, has condemned racist street violence, during which several people have been injured, that flared up after a Syrian and an Iraqi were accused of killing a German man on Sunday.
The far-right movement Pegida called for a second day of demonstrations after about 800 people in the eastern city of Chemnitz rioted, forcing police to call in reinforcements. Some far-right protesters were accused of hunting foreigners in street mobs in the eastern city of Chemnitz, while others were seen with Nazi-linked banners and giving the outlawed straight-arm salute as demonstrations went into their second day.
It was reported that some demonstrators on Sunday had shouted “We are the people”, “Get lost” and “You’re not welcome here” at any people they believed to be immigrants. “Such riotous assemblies, the hunting down of people who appear to be from different backgrounds or the attempt to spread hate in the streets, these have no place in our country,” Merkel’s spokesman, Steffen Seibert, said on Monday.
Prosecutors said on Monday that police had arrested a 23-year-old Syrian man and a 22-year-old Iraqi man on suspicion of stabbing the 35-year-old German in an altercation in the early hours of Sunday. “The investigation, especially into the motive, the details of the crime and the murder weapon continue,” a statement said. Marauding far-right mobs assaulted people they believed to be immigrants, according to reports by Agence France-Presse. The local police chief said one Syrian and one Afghan teenager were attacked in separate incidents, though neither was seriously hurt.
In the far-right riots that followed, some protesters used bottles to attack foreign-looking people, the freelance journalist Johannes Grunert, who reports frequently on the far-right scene, told Spiegel Online. According to AFP, police said pyrotechnics and other objects hurled from both sides left several people requiring hospital treatment. Officers moved in with water cannon and urged the crowd to remain calm.
Merkel’s spokesman, Steffen Seibert, condemned the violent protests. “Such riotous assemblies, the hunting down of people who appear to be from different backgrounds or the attempt to spread hate in the streets, these have no place in our country,” he said. Seibert told reporters in Berlin that the violence had no place in Germany. “People ganging up, chasing people who look different from them or who come from elsewhere ... is something we won’t tolerate,” he said. “This has no place in our cities and I can say for the German government that we condemn this in the sharpest possible manner.”
Asked about an apparent call for vigilante action by a politician from the far-right AfD party, Seibert said it was up to the legal system to deliver justice in a constitutional democracy. The AfD MP Markus Frohnmaier had tweeted: “If the state can no longer protect the citizen, then people will go on the streets and protect themselves.” Hundreds of riot police worked on Monday to keep the noisy crowd of mostly men, who were chanting slogans against “criminal foreigners” and waving German national flags, apart from more than 1,000 anti-fascist counter-protesters.
The violent altercation in which the German man was killed took place at 3am on Sunday, on the sidelines of a street festival. Two other men aged 33 and 38 were taken to hospital with severe injuries, police said. The far-right demonstrators chanted: “We are the people”, as well as the Nazi-era term “luegenpresse” (lying press). They displayed placards that read “stop the refugee flood” and “defend Europe”, the latter adorned with an image of an automatic rifle.
The mayor of Chemnitz, Barbara Ludwig, said she was horrified by Sunday’s demonstrations. “The fact that people can agree to meet … run through town and threaten people is bad,” she told the regional broadcaster MDR. Some carried banners or insignia of the far-right Alternative for Germany party (AfD) and neo-Nazi NPD parties and other extremist groups, while a handful delivered the illegal right-handed Hitler salute, said police.
Amid growing outrage over the scenes of xenophobic violence, left-leaning activists called for a counter-protest on Monday in the city, hours before Pegida supporters were due to gather. Their opponents, separated by a police line, yelled “Nazis, get out” and held up banners that read: “Rule of law, not vigilante justice.”
Pegida’s Chemnitz and West Saxony regional chapter urged its supporters to “Muster strength from anger and sadness! Only together can we ensure that his death was not pointless.” The local prosecutor, Christine Muecke, said the killing of the 35-year-old German man, which sparked the violence, stemmed from a verbal confrontation that escalated after a street festival. Two other men aged 33 and 38 were hospitalised with severe injuries, police said.
There has been a spate of racist hate crimes in the state of Saxony, where misgivings run deep about the arrival of more than a million asylum seekers in Germany since 2015. Two men were taken into custody: a 22-year-old Syrian citizen and a 21-year-old Iraqi citizen, and both were held on suspicion of manslaughter, Muecke said. She refused to provide more details about the suspects or the victim, the Associated Press reported.
The state is also the birthplace of the Islamophobic Pegida movement linked to the AfD, which has scooped up voters who blame Merkel for the number of refugees and migrants arriving in Germany. The mayor of Chemnitz, Barbara Ludwig, said she was horrified by Sunday’s demonstrations. She told the regional broadcaster MDR: “The fact that people can agree to meet … run through town and threaten people is bad.”
Surveys suggest that the AfD is on track to become the second biggest party in Saxony after regional elections due next year. Asked about an apparent call for vigilante action by a politician from the AfD, Seibert said it was up to the legal system to deliver justice. Markus Frohnmaier had tweeted: “If the state can no longer protect the citizen, then people will go on the streets and protect themselves.”
The results of last year’s general election showed that in Chemnitz itself, the AfD had as many voters as Merkel’s centre-right CDU.
GermanyGermany
MigrationMigration
Angela MerkelAngela Merkel
The far rightThe far right
EuropeEurope
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