Zimpapers Logo

BERLIN. – Chancellor Angela Merkel yesterday condemned violent far-right protests that degenerated into attacks against “foreign-looking” people, saying “hate in the streets” has no place in Germany.

After the fatal stabbing of a German man, allegedly by a Syrian and an Iraqi, thousands of protesters marched in the eastern city of Chemnitz for two straight days, some chasing down people they believed were immigrants.

Police reported assaults by extremists against at least three foreigners on Sunday, while investigations were opened in 10 cases of the protesters performing the illegal Hitler salute.

At least 20 people were injured on Monday as pyrotechnics and other objects were hurled by both far-right demonstrators as well as anti-fascist counter-protesters in the city.

“What we have seen is something which has no place in a constitutional democracy,” Merkel told journalists.

“We have video recordings of (people) hunting down others, of unruly assemblies, and hate in the streets, and that has nothing to do with our constitutional state.”

Interior Minister Horst Seehofer said federal police were ready to provide backup for overwhelmed officers in Saxony state, where Chemnitz is located.

The ugly scenes of mostly white men, many of them extremist football hooligans, hurling abuse at people they deemed to be foreigners, have deeply alarmed Germany.

“Of course history is not repeating itself, but that a far-right mob is on a rampage in the middle of Germany and the authorities are overwhelmed, is reminiscent of the situation during the Weimar Republic,” said Spiegel Online.

The Weimar years were marked by the formation of paramilitary groups, such as the Sturmabteilung or SA, which eventually helped the Nazis to power.

The circumstances that led to the death of the German man remain unclear, but the far-right quickly mobilised Sunday as word spread online that the key suspects were foreigners.

Saxony’s interior minister Roland Woeller said hooligans from across Germany, including as far as the western states of North Rhine-Westphalia and Lower Saxony, had travelled to Chemnitz for the marches.

State premier Michael Kretschmer warned that a false claim that the man was stabbed while defending a woman was circulating online, as he urged the population to seek credible news sources.

He also stressed that the nationalities of the suspects were “absolutely no reason to cast general suspicion on all foreign-born citizens”. – AFP