Extremists cause riots in an eastern city where a center is being built to receive displaced people
Broken windows, riot police preventing the attack on a public building and authorities divided between understanding a citizen protest and rejecting the radicals: these were the images that came in these days from a remote district in East Germany, Grevesmühlen, whose local powers they had authorized the construction of living containers for 500 refugees.
Windows and doors were broken as a result of police clashes with a group of far-right and hooligans who came from different parts of the country of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. They had mingled with a march of 700 civilians demanding at least a reduction in the number of refugees to be moved to an industrial estate next to their homes.
Upahl, a municipality adjacent to Grevesmühlen where the center will be installed, has 1,660 inhabitants. The site for the refugees is located next to several recently built single-family homes.
It was known that the residents intended to express their displeasure with the building where a decision on refugees would be taken, which narrowly won the yes vote. 60 police officers were deployed to maintain order. Finally, the operation was reinforced by 200 troops, after detecting the infiltration of known neo-Nazis.
“Olaf Scholz’s government must recognize that we municipalities are overwhelmed,” conservative councilor Tino Schomann told regional public television NDR. “Irregular immigration must stop, a repatriation offensive must be launched,” he added.
Upahl’s attempted far-right attack is a new warning sign. German right-wing radicalism concentrates its forces in the east. It is half of the country where the Alternative for Germany (AfD) achieves the best results, the only formation of that spectrum with seats in parliament (Bundestag).
Alongside that one parliamentary arm, the group of the ‘Reichsbürger’ – ‘Citizens of the Reich’ – who do not recognize the constitutional order or the current borders of Germany, is gaining strength.
Two years ago, they took advantage of an anti-vaccine protest to try to storm the Bundestag, but police blocked their way. Two months ago, national alarm went off when a rather grotesque plot was debunked, led by a businessman calling himself Henry XIII or Prince Reuss.
The ultra-right seeks its moment of glory where there is displeasure among ordinary citizens. Upahl is one of several semi-rural municipalities, especially in the east, where the Scholz government and regional powers are moving refugees.
The number of asylum seekers is well below the record one million refugees Germany received in 2015. Two years later, the AfD became the first far-right force with seats in the Bundestag to be backed by the xenophobic vote.
In 2022, the total number of asylum seekers will be 217,774. This statistic does not take into account the million Ukrainians – who are not required to apply for asylum under European law – who have arrived in Germany since the start of the Russian invasion.
In addition to the difficulties of locating them, there is the fear of the population for the applicants who have had their applications rejected and who remain in the country, often between uprooting and crime. Cases like that of Palestinian Ibrahim A., 33, who stabbed to death a couple of youths aged 17 and 19 and wounded seven others on a regional train last Wednesday.
He had been released a few days earlier after a year in pre-trial detention for another knife attack. He had a history of assault, robbery and sexual harassment. He did not know a permanent address, but there was also no place to be sent, since he is stateless. In his act there were no signs of jihadism, but of mental disorder.
Source: La Verdad
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