German government offers police help after violent far-right protest
The protest on Monday was sparked by the killing of a 35-year-old German man in an altercation with migrants.
Germany’s leading security official has offered to send federal assistance to the eastern state of Saxony after violence at a far-right protest in the city of Chemnitz left at least 18 people injured.
The protest late on Monday was sparked by the killing of a 35-year-old German man in an altercation with migrants over the weekend.
It erupted into clashes between neo-Nazis and left-wing counter-protesters, and opposition parties criticised police for failing to prevent the violence.
“The police in Saxony are in a difficult situation,” interior minister Horst Seehofer said. “Should it be requested, the federal government will provide police support.”
“Should Saxony need help to maintain law and order, and to uphold the law, the federal government stands ready,” she said.
Saxony’s police chief Juergen Georgie acknowledged authorities had underestimated the size of the protest.
Initial estimates had forecast about 1,000 far-right protesters and half that number of counter-protesters, he said. In the end, 600 officers struggled to prevent 6,000 supporters of the far right from breaking through police lines.
Footage showed demonstrators performing Nazi salutes and chanting “the national resistance is marching here”.
Green legislator Konstantin von Notz urged Mr Seehofer to consider resigning, accusing him of fanning anti-migrant sentiment over the past year.
Mr von Notz told the news portal t-online.de that the violence in Chemnitz recalled events elsewhere in eastern Germany during the early 1990s, when authorities failed to stop far-right mobs from attacking migrants.
The state of Saxony has long been a hotbed of anti-migrant sentiment, with some accusing police of turning a blind eye to sympathisers in their own ranks.
Police in the city said they had arrested a 22-year-old Syrian and a 21-year-old Iraqi on suspicion of manslaughter in the stabbing death of the German man after a street festival early on Sunday.
Prosecutors said the killing was preceded by a verbal confrontation that escalated.
Saxony’s governor condemned far-right extremists for using the man’s death as a political tool and for spreading false information online.
While the influx of migrants to Germany in recent years has resulted in a rise in violent crime, experts have noted that this is largely due to demographic factors: young men, who make up a large share of the migrant population, are generally more likely to commit crimes, whether they are German or foreign.
Governor Michael Kremtscher said authorities will swiftly and thoroughly investigate the killing but will also come down hard on those who stoked violence in its wake, including attacks on migrants on the sidelines of the protest.
