2023-06-03 23:11:00
4.06.2023 01:11
(Akt. 4.06.2023 01:11)
The police extinguished burning barricades with water cannons
©APA/dpa
In Leipzig, the violent protests after the prison sentence against left-wing extremist Lina E. continued on Sunday night. In the city there are “groups of apparently violent” people in various places, the Saxon police said on Twitter on Saturday evening. Emergency services were attacked and barricades were erected and set on fire. The police cleared the barricades in the south of the city with special vehicles.
Pyrotechnics and firecrackers were set off on Wolfgang-Heinze-Strasse, where a larger “Day X” demonstration by the radical left-wing scene was supposed to take place that afternoon – but which had been banned. Several hundred police were on site and, together with the fire brigade, extinguished the barricades, also with water cannons.
The Connewitz district was particularly affected by the riots. A police post was attacked with stones. Two officers were injured, the Saxon police said on Sunday night on Twitter.
Nationwide, left-wing circles were mobilized for solidarity demonstrations on Saturday in Leipzig. The reason for this is the verdict against Lina E. and three co-defendants to several years in prison for attacks on alleged or actual neo-Nazis, in which several people were injured, some seriously.
According to the police, around 1,500 participants gathered for a demonstration on Saturday afternoon, a third of whom were violent. 100 demonstrators were registered. The meeting initially remained peaceful, but then escalated. “The situation on Karl-Liebknecht-Strasse is becoming unpeaceful. Our forces are repeatedly attacked and thrown at with stones/pyrotechnics,” the police wrote on Twitter on Saturday evening. One appeals to all people there to distance themselves from criminals and to behave peacefully. “Bystanders are asked to leave or avoid the area.”
Despite the ban on the “Day X” demo, the police were present in the city with a large contingent on Saturday. Because the Sachsenpokal final, the city festival and a concert by Herbert Grönemeyer also took place. There were checkpoints all day long on access roads to the city and at the train station. Several vehicles and garbage cans were on fire early Saturday afternoon.
After the riots, the left criticized the actions of the police. Your head of parliament in the Saxon state parliament, Marco Böhme, accused the police on Twitter of having allowed the situation to escalate with the “actual ban”. The left-wing alliance “Dresden Nazifrei” described the behavior of the police as “martial”.
Saxony’s Prime Minister Michael Kretschmer, who visited the situation center with Interior Minister Armin Schuster (both CDU) in the afternoon, thanked the police for their efforts. “The goal is to protect people and property and to arrest violent criminals,” said the CDU politician on Twitter.
There had already been riots in Leipzig on Friday evening. Masked people had attacked police officers in the Connewitz district, threw stones, detonated pyrotechnics and set fire to barricades made from garbage cans and construction site barriers. The police used tear gas and, according to their own statements, objects were thrown at them from the roofs of houses.
According to initial findings, 23 officers were injured. A journalist was reportedly attacked and slightly injured by an unknown person. 17 police vehicles were damaged. Eight vehicles were set on fire. Damage “in the high five-digit sum” was caused at a bank branch, the police said. Five suspects – between the ages of 20 and 32 – were arrested. On Saturday, the magistrate issued an arrest warrant against her for serious breach of the peace.
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