German leaders condemn attempt to stormReichstag
SeniorGermanoffifficials BERLIN— on Sunday condemned attempts by protesters and others to storm the parliament building following a protest against the country’s pandemic restrictions.
Hundreds ofpeople, some wavingtheflflagoftheGerman Reich of 1871-1918, breached a security barrier outside the Reichstag late Saturday but were intercepted by police and forcibly removed.
“Reichflflags andright- wing extremist provocations in front of the German Bundestag are anunbearable attack on the heart of our democracy,” Germany’s president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, said Sunday. “We will never accept this.”
Steinmer said people had the right to express their anger about the coronavirus restrictions and to question them publicly, including with demonstrations.
“Mysympathyendswhere protesters allowthemselves to be used by enemies of democracy and political agitators,” he added.
Police used pepper spray to drive back the protesters, who earlier in the day had participated in a large rally through the capital.
About 300 people were arrested in front of the Reichstag and following an incident at the Russian embassy, according to police.
Berlin’s top security offifficial, Andreas Geisel, praised three offifficerswhohadstood alone against the protesters outside the Reichstag until reinforcements arrived. Opposition parties criticized the police’s failure to station suffifficient offifficers around Parliament despite public warnings from farright extremists that they planned to try to enter the building.
Robert Habeck, the co-leader of Germany’s Green party, called for a thorough investigation into the incident.
“The fact that Nazis with imperial war flags try to stormthe Bundestag recalls the darkest period in German history,” he told the Funke media group.
“An incident like on Saturday eveningmust not be allowed to happen again,” Habeck said. “I expect (federal) Interior MinisterHorst Seehofer to decisively combat right-wing extremism at all levels.”
The head of Chancellor AngelaMerkel’s center-right party, AnnegretKramp-Karrenbauer, expressed anger at the incident. “That the Reich flflag should flfly again at the German Bundestag is intolerable,” she said.
The co-leader of the farright Alternative for Germany party, Alice Weidel, described the protesters who tried to storm the building as “a few vandals” whose behavior was unacceptable. Members of her party had taken part in the rally against the pandemic restrictions earlier in the day.
Germany’s Vice Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who is seeking to succeed Merkel in next year’s election, said he was confifident security forceswouldclosely analyze what had happened Saturday and ensure it couldn’t occur again.
But he insisted that the incident shouldn’t distract fromthe fact that “the overwhelming, very big majority of citizens in this country are clever and sensible, and they agree with all of the decisions thatwetook to protect people’s health and for the benefifit of the economy and social cohesion.”
Opinion polls show only one in 10 Germans reject the country’s current prevention measures, such as the requirement to wear masks onpublic transport, instores andinsomepublic buildings suchas libraries andschools.
Police on Sunday ordered an anti-mask gathering of about 2,000 people at the Victory Column to disband, saying people weren’t respecting distancing rules. Several people were detained.