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meIt is one of the unwritten laws of German politics that the ministers of different federal states do not criticize each other in everyday political affairs. It is equally unusual when a government’s coalition partners attack each other in public. If both happen at the same time and the processes also revolve around the same person and the same issue, someone is currently in a huge political crisis of trust.
This is Roland Wöller, Minister of the Interior of the Free State of Saxony. Since a lateral thinking rally of tens of thousands of opponents of Crown regulations spun out of control last Saturday in Leipzig, the Christian Democrat has been the focus of criticism. The Saxon Greens declared on Twitter on Saturday that Wöller was “no longer acceptable”; Your “inaction” must have consequences.
The mood in the Saxon Kenya coalition (CDU, Greens and SPD), insider reports, is “practically in the basement” at the moment. That so many people wandered through the center of Leipzig, disregarding hygiene regulations and apparently neo-Nazis in the station district. Harassing those who wear masks and attacking journalists is at least “a new low point in the political culture of this country,” says Frank Richter, a former civil rights activist and member of the Saxon state parliament, who is not member of the parliamentary party SPD.
Saxon Interior Minister Roland Wöller is under fire
Quelle: dpa / Sebastian Willnow
According to the German Union of Journalists, there were also frequent physical attacks on representatives of the media. During the demonstration, at least 38 journalists were unable to do their work, nine of them because of the police.
The concept of deploying the Saxon police is not only causing irritation in the Free State. “You will have to ask yourself, was it enough?” Thuringia Interior Minister Georg Maier (SPD) said Sunday night at ARD.
Currently, Maier is also president of the conference of interior ministers, his criticisms carry weight. “Given the large number, of course it is always difficult to break up a meeting like this, because I need a lot of police. That will certainly be followed up.”
What responsibility does the Superior Administrative Court have?
This “follow-up” has started a long time ago. Interior Minister Wöller had blamed Bautzen’s Higher Administrative Court (OVG) for the chaos on Sunday. Because this court had approved the elevator last Saturday, with a maximum limit of 16,000 participants, maintaining the distance, wearing a mask and the requirement that the demonstration could not run according to the Saxon Crown regulation, but must be ” stationary “.
The police and the Ministry of the Interior probably already suspected that these requirements would hardly be met; After all, the regulatory authorities had already had their experiences with the Corona demonstrations in Berlin. With its decision, the court approved “the biggest crown party” – Wöller called it “irresponsible” on Sunday.
Unrest after the demonstration of “lateral thinking” in Leipzig
Tens of thousands of people demonstrated against the Crown restrictions in Leipzig and ignored them en masse. At first everything is peaceful, but when the city breaks up the meeting, the mood changes.
Source: WELT / Michael Wüllenweber
Critics consider that Woeller’s reprimand by justice is exaggerated; if only because representatives of the executive branch should not attack the judiciary in a constitutional state. The fact that Wöller approached the court’s decision so directly and called it “irresponsible” is actually a first. Politicians generally hide their discontent with the judiciary in situations like these with phrases like: “I would have liked a different verdict.”
With his attack on the court, Wöller also distracts from his own failure, it is said in Dresden behind closed doors. However, some criticism is also voiced loud and clear. Wöller’s subsequent remarks at a press conference on Sunday “stunned” him, said Valentin Lippmann, parliamentary manager of the Greens in the Saxon state parliament.
Wöller said “not a word about the attacks on journalists”, a “relativization of far-right violence”. That is not a reassessment, but “absurd” In any case, his confidence in the leadership of the Saxon Ministry of the Interior is “definitely at the end,” Lippmann said.
As I said, this is not formulated by an opposition politician, but by a coalition. The mood in the Saxon Kenyan government is currently not in the best of circumstances, because the government partners are arguing a lot about the new budget and its titles.
A crucial test for the Kenyan coalition
“Prime Minister Kretschmer closes his wallet, others want more spending,” describes a Saxon politician from the CDU of the current conflict. You hear from the Green circles that the measure is full. There is a great crisis. Wöller is hardly durable; the anger against him was great. The CDU would not understand this enormous discontent.
That sounds like an ordeal for the Kenyan coalition, which is not even a year old. The SPD and the Greens have repeatedly counted Interior Minister Wöller in the past. It was about constitutional protection scandals, far-right riots in Chemnitz and Heidenau, police failures. The interior minister was repeatedly accused of weak leadership.
For Wöller’s opponents, the chaos in Leipzig is therefore part of a whole series of cases of political failure. “The reduction of the police force in the face of violent right-wing extremists, conspiracy ideologues and other democratic enemies paints a disastrous picture of the Free State of Saxony,” said a statement from the Greens. Wöller must finally draw “appropriate” personal consequences.
CDU MP from North Saxony Marian Wendt is also not satisfied with the police operation in Leipzig; he complains, for example, that not enough bars have been set up in the train station. But Wendt also sees the main responsibility in OVG Bautzen, which corrected a ruling from the Leipzig administrative court. This had initially confirmed the city’s hygiene concept, according to which the concentration of the crown protesters should have taken place on the spacious grounds of the former Leipzig trade fair.
Wendt calls OVG Bautzen’s relocation of the demonstration to the center of the city “a stab in the back by the police.” They decided to reduce the tension, while accepting the violations of the conditions.
Wendt finds it astonishing that the Greens and leftists are now criticizing this approach: the alternative to using them would have been “water cannons, cleaning armor or clubs,” that is, “police measures that the Greens and leftists have so far rejected.”
However, the Leipzig police and the Saxon interior minister in the Dresden parliament will soon have to answer many questions in the interior committee. The meeting is scheduled for next Thursday; but some questions are already on the table.
According to information from WELT, the Saxon security authorities were warned early last week through a standardized complaint procedure by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution and the State Police that, in addition to the peaceful protesters, many neo-Nazis were heading to Leipzig. It was said in advance that about “200 people in the red category” were expected.
“Category Red” or “Category C” represent in police jargon a clear will to use violence. These neo-Nazis apparently came mainly from East Germany, for example from Erfurt, Halle, Berlin and Cottbus. The Home Affairs Committee will now investigate, among other things, whether the arrival of these violent criminals could have been prevented or at least made difficult. This is legally possible in “dangerous situations”; The federal police then carry out the corresponding checks at the train stations. People in the “Red category” are often closely accompanied by the police. This was obviously not the case in Leipzig.
Another question is whether the Leipzig police had sufficient emergency services on site. When around 600 left and radical left protesters demonstrated in Leipzig on 12 September under the slogan “Storm the fortress”, more than 1,700 police officers were on duty in the city, water cannons and cleaning vehicles were available. in the back streets. They were hardly used that day; the demonstration was largely peaceful.
It is still unclear how many forces were in Leipzig last Saturday with tens of thousands of protesters; An exact statement from the police is pending. There is unofficial information on between 1,700 and 2,400 officials from a total of eight federal states. Compared to the use at the September 12 rally, that would be disproportionate. Was the march simply underestimated by the authorities?
At least that is what the Saxon Greens are firmly convinced of. “The police emergency and the too low number of officials were visible to all,” criticized Norman Vogler, state spokesman for the Greens. He criticized: “Existing material such as barriers and water cannons were not used.” However, Leipzig Police Chief Torsten Schultze explains: “You don’t fight a pandemic with police means, but only with the common sense of the people.”
Wait a minute, can that really be? A green man who would have liked the use of water cannons, and a police chief who defends his concept of de-escalation against such accusations. Reversed roles? This comparison alone shows how precarious the situation is in Saxony.
Protesters shoot police officers with firecrackers and rockets
When the lateral thinking demonstration in Leipzig broke up, there were riots between the protesters and the police. On Saturday afternoon, the participants launched firecrackers and rockets at the site of the demonstration on Augustusplatz.
Source: WELT / Martin Heller, Nicole Fuchs-Wiecha
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