German conservatives vow to punish rioters after youth protest clashes
Leading German conservative politicians have vowed to crack down on the perpetrators of violence in several cities during nationwide youth protests on Saturday.
Following initially peaceful demonstrations in the day attended by tens of thousands of young people, violent incidents broke out in the evening, particularly in Frankfurt and Cologne. In Berlin, bottles and firecrackers were thrown. Police used water cannon in several cities.
The initiative Gen Z regelt (Gen Z takes charge) had called for peaceful protests to demand increased funding for schools, measures to tackle the rising cost of living and stronger policies to counter global warming.
German Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt on Sunday pinned the blame on "violent left-wing groups and troublemakers from migrant communities."
They had "hijacked the peaceful demonstrations that took place during [Saturday] afternoon," Dobrindt told the Bild tabloid.
"The rioters and looters will be identified and held accountable. Serious penalties must follow these breaches of the public peace," he said.
Dobrindt praised the actions of the security forces. "Violent outbreaks such as those seen in Paris were prevented thanks to the highly committed efforts of our police officers," he said.
France has seen weeks of student-led protests, which also broke out into serious riots in some places.
'Violence-prone young people'
North Rhine-Westphalia's interior minister Herbert Reul - like Dobrindt a member of Chancellor Friedrich Merz's Christian Democrats - strongly condemned the riots, which also hit the state capital Cologne.
He said that many people had taken to the streets peacefully to "make demands for the future of a generation."
"That is their good right and belongs to a vibrant democracy," he said.
But "anyone who throws stones and firecrackers at police officers, sets off pyrotechnics and rampages through the streets has no political cause. People who hide their faces do not want to debate and persuade. They want trouble and violence. Nothing can justify that," he said.
"These people must know: we will not accept this. We are investigating the perpetrators, and for them it will get scary after Halloween too."
"When violence hides within a group, we may not only punish the individual stone throw. Anyone who believes they can disappear into the crowd and riot must not feel safe."
In Frankfurt, some 100 police officers were injured in the unrest, including one seriously, said the Christian Democrat interior minister for the state of Hesse, Roman Poseck.
Fifty-four people had been detained, all between 13 and 29 years old. Seventeen businesses were damaged, and five were plundered, he said.
Poseck said that "an enormous potential for violence on the part of left-wing extremists and violence-prone young people, mostly from migrant backgrounds, has been unleashed."
"This group of offenders was predominantly made up of migrants. And we must address that too," he said in Frankfurt. "There must be no false taboos here."
That is why the police had been deployed on a massive scale, he said - with more than 1,000 officers, water cannon, the Special Forces, helicopters and tear gas.
Debris lies on a street in Frankfurt following overnight riots that erupted at a demonstration called by the "Gen Z regelt" initiative. (is associated with: «German conservatives vow to punish rioters after youth protest clashes») Jason Tschepljakow/dpa
The storefront of a shop is seen damaged following overnight riots that erupted at a demonstration called by the "Gen Z regelt" initiative in Frankfurt. (is associated with: «German conservatives vow to punish rioters after youth protest clashes») Jason Tschepljakow/dpa
A view of the damage at a gun shop following overnight riots that erupted at a demonstration called by the "Gen Z regelt" initiative in Frankfurt. (is associated with: «German conservatives vow to punish rioters after youth protest clashes») Andreas Arnold/dpa
