German protesters voice anger at migrant crime, politicians
CHEMNITZ, Germany — Hundreds of people protested and expressed disdain for politicians in east Germany on Thursday as a regional governor visited a city where the fatal stabbing of a German citizen sparked violent clashes over immigration.
Saxony state Gov. Michael Kretschmer held a town hall meeting in Chemnitz under the watch of tight police security as about 500 people demonstrated outside.
Many of the protesters refused to talk to the media, but the ones who did said they felt abandoned by politicians and were angry at the crimes committed by migrants.
At the site where the 35-year-old man was wounded in an altercation with migrants over the weekend, a message placed among the flowers and candles read: “Take away their knives or we’ll take away your elected offices.”
Authorities denied online rumors that the victim was protecting a woman from harassment when he was stabbed, saying there was no evidence this had been the case.
The slaying has become a rallying point for far-right groups in Germany. At least 18 people were injured Monday when their supporters, mobilized from surrounding areas and further afield, clashed with counter-protesters in Chemnitz.
The public display, which included neo-Nazis hurling abuse and bottles as police struggled to keep the groups apart, has raised fresh concerns about the threat posed by far-right extremists in Germany.
Green party lawmaker Claudia Roth told German news agency dpa that “organized far-right extremists” appeared to be using public anger over the killing for their ends. Footage showing numerous protesters performing the stiff-armed Nazi salute was evidence of their extremist ideology, Roth said. Public displays of the salute, the Nazi swastika and other efforts to glorify Adolf Hitler’s National Socialist regime are forbidden in Germany and can result in fines or prison sentences.
Saxony state has long been a hotbed of anti-migrant sentiment. It is home to the group Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the West, or PEGIDA, and a stronghold of the far-right Alternative for Germany party, which received almost a quarter of the vote in the state last year.