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“Looking the other way is no longer allowed” – Steinmeier calls for action against right-wing extremism
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Frank-Walter Steinmeier during his morning speech at the Theresienwiese in Munich
Source: AFP / CHRISTOF STACHE
On the 40th anniversary of the Oktoberfest attack, Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier called for more decisive action against far-right networks, including in the police. The “enemies of freedom and democracy” must not be tolerated.
WITHOn the 40th anniversary of the Oktoberfest attack, Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier called for continued action against far-right networks. “The killings of right-wing terrorists in recent decades were not the work of confused people,” he said in Munich on Saturday, according to a speech that was released in advance. Rather, the perpetrators were “involved in networks of hate and violence.” “We have to track these networks. We have to fight them, even more decisively than before, ”demanded Steinmeier.
“We know that there are far-right networks,” said the federal president. “The series of murders perpetrated by the NSU has shed light on this blind corner of the criminal prosecution.” At the same time, it had become clear that “the investigations will not result in anything if they are not carried out unconditionally, as they should be”.
The commemoration of the Oktoberfest attack should be an occasion to “think about errors, omissions and blind spots in the investigation of far-right attacks in the past,” Steinmeier demanded. This includes the question of “whether there were, and possibly still are, typical and repetitive deficits in law enforcement.”
“Looking away is no longer allowed”
According to the manuscript, Steinmeier also pointed to incidents within the police authorities in his speech, such as the recently discovered right-wing extremist chat group within the police in North Rhine-Westphalia. “It is no longer allowed to look the other way,” he said, referring to such cases.
Trust the police. However, the police must not tolerate “enemies of freedom and democracy.” “Every effort should be made to expose far-right networks where they exist. Police leadership and policy makers must not tolerate a climate in which they arise and can be covered by others, ”Steinmeier emphasized.
“Right-wing extremism has deep roots in our society,” the federal president admitted at the same time. The memory of the numerous “extreme right-wing acts of terrorism and the large number of their victims” must occupy an appropriate place in the collective memory of the country.
For the 40th anniversary, a new documentation center on the right-wing terrorist attack was set up on the Theresienwiese in Munich.
Source: dpa / Sven Hoppe
On September 26, 1980, Munich’s Oktoberfest was the target of the worst far-right attack in post-war history. The murderer Gundolf Köhler placed a bomb in a trash can at the main entrance to the festival area and blew it up. In addition to the attacker, twelve Oktoberfest visitors were killed and 221 people were injured, some seriously.
Investigators originally assumed that Köhler had carried out the attack as a student in love who was under stress from exams. The Federal Prosecutor’s Office is now assuming an extreme right motive.
