The police use water cannons to disperse violent leftist protesters demonstrating against the establishment of AfD’s youth chapter in Giessen, Germany.
Sascha Schürmann / AFP
The chancellor proved incapable of joining other officials who bashed the left for undermining democracy.
A good deal of establishment figures have responded how they should have to far-left attacks on Saturday against the AfD—with condemnation. Unfortunately, though unsurprisingly, Chancellor Friedrich Merz is not among them.
Instead, his comments are said not just to have offended the opposition party, but also the police officers who were sent out to defend them, and all others at risk.
Thousands—if not tens of thousands—of protesters tried to block the AfD from launching its new youth wing in Giessen over the weekend. Their typically disruptive efforts resulted in between 10 and 20 police officers being injured, after being “repeatedly attacked” with stones, bottles and pyrotechnic devices, and numerous vehicles being damaged.
Hesse’s Minister-President Boris Rhein (CDU) bashed the violence as a new “low point for the left,” adding that “anyone who tries to prevent and attack assemblies with violence, threats and aggressive marches is not protecting our democracy, but attacking it.” He also praised the roughly 6,000 police officers deployed during the demonstrations for their “courageous and decisive” actions, which he said “prevented massive destruction, serious injuries, and worse.”
Police union official Thorsten Schleheider went further, describing the rioters as “hypocritical, self-righteous, undemocratic, contemptuous of humanity, and violent.”
„Der Linksextremismus hat sich in #Giessen mal wieder von seiner hässlichen Fratze gezeigt – scheinheilig, selbstgerecht, undemokratisch, menschenverachtend und gewalttätig“, sagt #GdP-Landesvize Schleheider und wünscht allen, auch unseren fast 30 verletzten Kollegen alles Gute pic.twitter.com/rGFjJo1QFK
Merz, for his part, said the scenes from Giessen were “anything but pleasant,” describing the violence as an “altercation between the far left and the far right.”
AfD co-leader Alice Weidel accused him of “downplaying the intolerable conditions” and, in doing so, of stabbing “every single one of the 6,000 police officers in the back, who here—at risk to life and limb—must perform their duty.”
Völlige Entgleisung: Merz verharmlost die untragbaren Zustände in Gießen als "Auseinandersetzung zwischen ganz links und ganz rechts". Damit fällt er jedem einzelnen der 6.000 Polizeibeamten in den Rücken, die hier – unter Gefahr für Leib und Leben – ihren Dienst tun müssen. pic.twitter.com/J3J2OTL138
In another post on Sunday, Weidel said that the violence showed: “This is how it cannot continue.”
Media and political competitors are equally called upon to return to freedom of opinion and democracy!
In spite of the violence, the AfD meeting was eventually able to go ahead.
Michael Curzon is a news writer for europeanconservative.com based in England’s Midlands. He is also Editor of Bournbrook Magazine, which he founded in 2019, and previously wrote for London’s Express Online. His Twitter handle is @MichaelCurzon_.
