DIt was not surprising that the AfD immediately used the debate about the firecracker excesses on New Year’s Eve to denounce an allegedly misguided migration policy. The right-wing party manages to do this quickly on almost every topic. This time, however, the question of the connection between the firecracker attacks on security forces and the origin of the perpetrators was soon discussed across party lines.
Although no precise information has yet been published as to who the perpetrators are, video footage and reports on focal points of violence in neighborhoods with a high proportion of migrants have strengthened the impression that there is no obvious connection here is to be pointed out.
The Social Democrat Dirk Wiese, one of the deputy chairmen of the SPD parliamentary group in the Bundestag and spokesman for the Seeheimer Kreis, which is sometimes described as “conservative”, put it comparatively cautiously. “The violent excesses on New Year’s Eve make it clear that the causes lie much deeper and are not limited to the turn of the year,” said Wiese in an interview with the FAZ. A “ban on firecrackers” alone does not help, otherwise the debate misses the point.
According to Wiese, what needs to be talked about is “a lack of social participation, social isolation with fears about the future and failures in integration in some parts of the city”. The “red thread of escalating violence” is increasing disrespect towards, for example, the police, fire brigade and rescue workers throughout the country. “Sometimes we even see widespread contempt for the state.”
Spahn: “It’s about unregulated migration”
One of Wiese’s counterparts in the Union faction, its deputy chairman Jens Spahn, became even clearer. “It’s more about unregulated migration, failed integration and a lack of respect for the state instead of fireworks,” said the CDU member of the Bundestag and former Federal Minister of Health to the t-online portal. Politicians must ask themselves why New Year’s Eve celebrations keep escalating in the same places with the same participants. In Spahn’s opinion, the “unspeakable” attacks on emergency services are also evidence of the weakness of the state.
The North Rhine-Westphalian Minister of the Interior, Herbert Reul (CDU), does not believe in ignoring the issue of migration background from the debate – but he does not choose such edgy words as the Berlin opposition politician Spahn. “The rioters were apparently predominantly young men in groups, often with a migration background,” Reul told the FAZ. it should only be available in a few days.
