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At the left-wing demonstration in Leipzig, a large number of policemen are present. After the clashes in recent weeks, many expect violence again. But it is different.
Anyone who boarded tram line 3 in Leipzig this Saturday afternoon and drove east past the famous Gewandhaus, saw a city in a state of emergency. Police water cannons were rolling around the station esplanade, an evacuation tank could also be seen and somewhere in the sky a helicopter was circling. They were images that are otherwise only known from major political events or, in a weakened form, from crown demonstrations in the capital. In reality, these missions are not the order of the day in Leipzig.
The reason for the training, at least the official, was on Eisenbahnstrasse, a 20-minute drive from the train station, in the northeast of the city. The street through the multicultural district of Volkmarsdorf has a notorious reputation as “the worst street in Germany”. A documentary aired on ProSieben once called it that, the street has maintained the legend to this day, even if it has long been statistically disproven. In 2018, the Saxon CDU introduced the first gun ban zone in the state.
Massive police presence
This must be taken into account to explain the massive police presence with which the authorities responded to a relatively small demonstration that the left-wing alliance Nika (“Nationalism is not an alternative”) announced for Saturday. Under the title “Against Fortress Europe and China’s Authoritarian Regime”, 600 participants, mostly from Leipzig, wanted to move from the periphery to the center.
Participants in the demonstration “Storm the fortress – break all borders!” passes through the city. (Source: Robert Michael / dpa)
It was an unusual title for a time when critics of the system could speak out against crown requirements, but it was from the days before the pandemic. Until the coronavirus arrived, Chinese President Xi Jinping was expected in the hometown of Karl Liebknecht and Bill Kaulitz this weekend in order to negotiate with the German government, among other things, an investment protection agreement with the EU. Hong Kong’s controversial security law was also on the agenda.
Resistance to the EU-China summit
Hoteliers in the city had already reported full order books months before, but this was not just due to diplomats and negotiators. The Leipzig Antifa, one of the most militant branches of the autonomous left-wing movement, had mobilized across the country and described the “resistance to this summit as THE central event of the German left in 2020.” It was a declaration of war that brought back unpleasant memories of the G20 summit among the authorities. As Beijing and Berlin met at the Leipzig Congress Center at the zoo, the plan was to produce “beautiful images like those of Paris” in the city center.
But it turned out different, at least a little. The summit fell into the water, but the demonstration stayed. Throughout the weekend, the EU-China summit protest alliance had announced events to demonstrate from Leipzig against “the rise of the Middle Kingdom to a world power.” Even the police apparently did not change their program and stayed with the originally planned contingent.
That was also due to the fact that the scene on the left had already shown what it can do the weekend before. Following the evacuation of two occupied houses in eastern Leipzig and in the alternative Connewitz district, there were riots for three nights. The result: 20 police officers injured and 38 investigations for arson and bodily injury. Even if the organizers of this demonstration had publicly renounced violence beforehand, the authorities remained skeptical. In a public statement, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution openly expected unrest.
Protesters sing peaceful evergreens
How exaggerated this concern became when the rally was scheduled to begin at 4.30 pm Mostly black-clad protesters, almost all with mouth and nose protection, chanting peaceful roadside evergreens, like ” Don’t stop me now “(Queen) or the” Rauch-Haus song “by the Berlin rock band Ton Steine Scherben. “The Mariannenplatz was blue, there were so many policemen there,” he says in one line to this protest song.
With the addition of the right place, he described the absurd situation almost perfectly. Barely more than 100 protesters confronted an army of police officers who had come from many federal states and, especially in the first few minutes, they far exceeded the number of participants. Just 45 minutes later, the ranks of anti-authoritarians had been filled so that the protest march could open up, saving face against politics, the police, and Beijing. Meanwhile, according to police, up to 600 protesters participated.
The protesters drew attention with banners and chants. (Source: Robert Michael / dpa)
For tactical reasons, the police did not want to reveal their strength at night. In an interview with t-online, the president of the police, Horst Kretzschmar, only spoke of “more than 1,000 policemen throughout the weekend” who had come from all over the republic. It is debatable whether this was justified in view of the peaceful course of events. In any case, the protesters were irritated.
“When the police accompany a peaceful protest march with armored vehicles, they should not be surprised by scenes like the G20,” said protester Robert, who wants to remain anonymous. He wonders why the Berlin police allow the Reichstag to be stormed “by fascists”, while in Leipzig they are completely “overdriving”.
The main organizer is threatened with criminal proceedings.
Both sides, the police and the protesters, left that kind of verbal provocation, physically kept calm. The protesters’ greatest discomfort was a criminal threat against the main organizer of the demonstration, whom the police accused of having recorded a confidential conversation with the authorities. The situation was clarified by the MDR, who had previously connected the young man to a button microphone. The protesters thanked them with long chants of “bull pigs.”
However, the promise to dominate China was not kept. Other issues were urgent, such as the behavior of the federal government after the burning of the Greek refugee camp in Moria, which was evident in the chants against the federal Minister of the Interior, Horst Seehofer, combined with the accusation “Europe is a murderer”. The anticapitalist triad of “state, capital, nation – shit” and the statement “pyrotechnics is not a crime” were announced and accompanied by the firing of isolated firecrackers. The police took it lightly. The fact that the Chinese president was technically unable to take note of the events in Leipzig was also due to the fact that a banner directed against him was written in Cantonese. Jinping only speaks Mandarin.
The protest from the left, as one participant said at the end of the demonstration, must be violent, otherwise it is imperceptible and is simply ignored by the media. The protesters reportedly refuted that Saturday afternoon.
