Now migrant gang assaults women in Munich nightclub
Merkel forced to act as thousands protest on streets
MIGRANTS were yesterday accused of further sexual assaults in Germany – after Angela Merkel proposed stricter laws regulating asylum seekers after a string of New Year’s Eve attacks.
A gang of up to 15 ‘foreign men’ were alleged to have ‘indecently touched’ two women outside a nightclub in Munich – adding to around 150 reports of attacks across five German cities.
Yesterday, Chancellor Merkel announced plans to tighten up the law on denying the right of asylum for those who have committed crimes. The news came after she faced renewed criticism of her open-door policy, which saw 1.1 million migrants enter the country in 2015.
The latest attacks add to the scores of cases across Germany of women being attacked by ‘organised Arab or North African gangs’ on December 31.
Yesterday, a march by the German far-right group Pegida through the streets of Cologne had to be dispersed by police water cannon. In the central square police weathered a storm of fireworks, stones and beer bottles.
Pepper spray was also used and the demonstration was cancelled. Police warned the protesters via loudspeakers they faced truncheon charges and arrest unless the mood calmed down.
Pegida members chanted ‘We are the people’ – the slogan of the ‘velvet revolutionaries’ of 1989 in East Germany who took on the power of the Communist state.
Pegida has attracted a strong following since mass immigration began into Germany.
There was also a ‘flashmob’ of thousands of women with placards saying, ‘No violence against women’. Authorities sent 1,700 police onto the streets to keep the groups apart.
Media websites reported that there were even officers on duty in the main station toilets in a bid to prevent a recurrence of the frightful New Year’s Eve scenes.
One of the speakers to the mob was former English Defence League leader Tommy Robinson, who will be leading a march by the UK branch of Pegida in Birmingham next month.
The co-founder of Pegida, Lutz Bachmann, posted a photo of himself on social media with the slogan ‘Rape Refugees Not Welcome’. In a similar vein, a leader of the populist right-wing Alternative For Germany party, which has attracted around 10% support in surveys ahead of state elections this year, claimed that the events gave a ‘taste of the looming collapse of culture and civilisation’.
Ms Merkel said her proposal, which will be discussed with her coalition partners and would need parliamentary approval, would help Germany deport serial offenders convicted of lesser crimes.
She said: ‘This is in the interests of the citizens of Germany, but also in the interests of the great majority of the refugees who are here. Serial offenders who consistently, for example, return to theft or time and again insult women must count on the force of the law.’
Cologne’s police chief was sacked on Friday amid mounting criticism of his force’s handling of the incidents and accusations it was slow in releasing information about the attacks for fear of inflaming racial tension. Identical sex attacks have been reported in Finland, Sweden, Switzerland and Austria, sparking fears they were co-ordinated.
‘A taste of the looming collapse of civilisation’