Germany’s cities once again had to endure a night of aggression, as young men were allowed to wreak havoc by launching fireworks in public areas, setting buildings ablaze, and attacking emergency services during New Year’s Eve.
Though major news agencies failed to name the perpetrators, videos circulating on social media made it quite clear that young migrant men were to blame, with right-wing Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party pointing the finger at the failed migration policies of the past.
In Berlin, 30 police officers and one firefighter were injured in confrontations or attacks during New Year’s Eve, leading to 400 arrests. Hundreds of police officers from across the country were deployed to the capital to help prevent further violence.
Explosions of very strong, illegal fireworks in Berlin also caused extensive damage in two neighborhoods and injured numerous people, some of them seriously.
In a video circulating on social media an Arab influencer named Attalah Younes can be seen shooting a firework rocket at a residential building. In the apartment, the rocket explodes, accompanied by a bright flash of light that lights up the entire apartment.
As with last year’s festivities, police in the capital city Berlin evaluated the events of New Year’s Eve from their perspective as a “success,” saying that there had been no major violence. The violence on the last day of 2023 had also been called a “return to normal,” because the number of arrests and injured police officers had not reached the same level as in 2022.
On Wednesday, January 1st, German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser boasted:
The deployment of strong police forces from the federal states and the federal police and an early and consistent crackdown are the right means against perpetrators of violence and chaos.
However, not everyone was satisfied with this conclusion. According to Rainer Wendt, the head of the German Police Trade Union (DPolG):
There are areas where young, highly violent young men, many with migration backgrounds, have claimed control of the public space for themselves. Peaceful people no longer go there for fear of violence.
Police in Hamburg spoke of being “literally shot at” with the explosives, whilst in the city of Leipzig police officers reported being attacked by large groups of people with fireworks and bottles.
Alice Weidel, co-leader of the anti-immigration AfD, called the scenes witnessed on New Year’s Eve “civil war-like conditions.” She said that citizens who simply wanted to celebrate once again had to pay the price of previous governments’ migration policies.
Scholar of Islam Susanne Schröter told daily Bild that a “free space for violence” now exists in Germany, as well as a taboo on naming migrant perpetrators. For that reason, many women and children prefer to stay at home on New Year’s Eve.
“Parents now forbid their adolescent children to leave their house because they rightly fear for their safety,” the professor said, adding that at least 111 of the 145 perpetrators arrested in Berlin two years ago were immigrants or descendants of immigrants.
In Italy, New Year’s Eve was barely more peaceful. Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini of the anti-immigration Lega party posted a video montage consisting of young migrant men chanting anti-Italian and pro-Palestinian slogans, as well as a street fight breaking out between many youngsters.
“Don’t they like our country? Let them go back to where they came from. We don’t need them,” Salvini tweeted.
Meanwhile, a 23-year-old Egyptian man injured five people with a knife on New Year’s Eve in the city of Rimini, before he was shot dead by police. The public prosecutor’s office is investigating whether the incident was a terrorist attack. According to news reports, the man had entered Italy illegally in 2022, and applied for protection status, which was granted to him.
In Belgium, rioters set at least 60 cars on fire and then threw Molotov cocktails at the emergency services when they came to deal with the blazes. There were 159 arrests. Police responded to more than 1,700 incidents across the city. Another 49 people were arrested in Antwerp, Belgium’s second largest city.
In the Netherlands, a chaotic and violent New Year’s Eve led to the arrest of more than 200 people. Police officers and emergency responders were specifically targeted by rioters. Similar scenes unfolded in France, where police officers were attacked, and cars set on fire.
