The Berlin police said on Tuesday evening that the vast majority of those arrested for the riots were immigrants. Police and rescue workers were attacked with fireworks, among other things.
BERLIN In Germany, the investigation into the New Year’s Eve riots continues fiercely.
Dozens of police and rescue workers were injured in the riots in the capital Berlin, when they were attacked with, among other things, firework rockets and explosives on New Year’s Day. There were also smaller riots in other German cities.
The rescue workers have told for German media (you switch to another service), that they were attacked when they arrived to put out trash cans and other barricades set alight on the streets. The riots in Berlin were concentrated in the neighborhoods of Neukölln and Kreuzberg.
The Berlin police said on Tuesday evening that the local of the Tagesspiegel magazine (you switch to another service) according to that 45 of the 145 people arrested for the riots in Berlin have German citizenship. A total of 18 nationalities were arrested, including Syrians and Afghans. The majority were men.
Riots have sparked in Germany chat (you switch to another service) on whether rockets and fireworks should be banned from private individuals. During the Corona period, their use was restricted by bans, but even in the years before the pandemic, rockets have been deliberately aimed at rescue workers.
The fact that the vast majority of suspects are immigrants has also sparked discussion. Conservative politicians say the rioting shows that Berlin, led by the Social Democrats, the Greens and the left, is sinking deeper and deeper into chaos.
Leading the conservative CDU party Friedrich Merz said Merkur magazine (you switch to another service) according to which the attacks show that the rioters despise the state. Another influential conservative politician, state leader of Bavaria Markus Söder says the capital has fallen into chaos.
“Unfortunately, Berlin has become a chaotic city that doesn’t know how to organize elections or guarantee the safety of its citizens,” Söder told Merkur.
Re-elections will be held in Berlin in February, as several problems were identified in the 2021 local elections. There were no ballots at the polling stations and not everyone could vote.