Berlin [Germany], January 5: German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser was at odds with her own government spokesman on Wednesday as she blamed men with a migration background for much of the fireworks violence which marred New Year's Eve in Berlin and other cities.
"We have a big problem in major German cities with certain young men with a migration background who despise our state, commit acts of violence and are hardly reached by education and integration programmes," Faeser told the Funke Media group.
She called for quick and clear consequences for the perpetrators, but her comments were very different to deputy government spokesman Wolfgang Büchner.
He told reporters that allegations many of the troublemakers had a migrant background were a red herring.
"It was an attack on the rule of law," he said.
In Berlin, 41 police officers were injured in attacks involving rockets and fireworks.
Berlin police have launched a total of 355 cases, with investigations under way for breach of the peace, assault on and resistance to law enforcement officers and rescue workers, dangerous bodily harm and causing an explosion.
Police arrested 145 people at the time in Berlin but all suspects have been released after measures were completed. Around two thirds were under 25, 27 were under 18 and 139 were male.
A total of 18 different nationalities were recorded among those arrested in the capital, with 45 of the suspects German citizens.
Berlin Mayor FranziskaGiffey plans a youth summit following the violent incidents and proposed banning certain firecrackers, saying a nationwide ban on all fireworks would be impossible to enforce.
She said invitations to young people should be sent out as soon as possible, a spokesperson for the Senate, the city's administration, told dpa.
Giffey rejected criticism that Berlin had failed to handle the situation appropriately, with revellers having the first chance to use fireworks in three years because of the coronavirus pandemic. New Year's Eve has long been a major party date in the German capital, with the streets littered with debris from fireworks on January 1.
"We had the full manpower of the police and fire brigade that night, a tripling of the fire brigade's emergency forces on the streets," she told broadcaster rbb-Inforadio on Wednesday. "I don't see that the police were being restricted here." Her comments came after Friedrich Merz, the leader of the Christian Democrats (CDU), the largest opposition party at the federal level, told the MünchnerMerkur newspaper that the state of Berlin was not coping with the situation. For years, he said, the Senate has been limiting the deployment options of the police for political reasons.
Giffey, from the Social Democrats, the party leading the governing coalition at the federal level, pointed out this is not solely a Berlin phenomenon.
Police and emergency workers were indeed also attacked in several other cities on New Year's Eve.
The Federal Interior Ministry is preparing a Germany-wide report on the attacks but figures had yet to be received from some larger federal states, spokesperson Maximilian Kall said.
Germany's top pet registering service Tasso reported 660 missing dogs following the fireworks, which can disturb many animals.
Source: Qatar Tribune