Leipzig saw quite a bit of violence even before the New Year had settled in, as left-wing extremists clashed with police triggering a genuine political row. Law enforcement officials said the tensions have taken on “a new quality”.
Referring to an attack on the police force in Leipzig, the police union stressed that it was an actual instance of domestic terrorism:
“The basic definition of terrorism is spreading fear among the population through violence, and exactly that is happening here”, Rainer Wendt, head of the German police union DPolG told DW.
“But this is a new quality: a targeted life-threatening attack on officers, and we have to assume, unfortunately, that at some point someone might be killed”, Wendt thundered.
Interior Minister Horst Seehofer also commented on the violent episode in Saxony:
“This act shows that inhuman violence also comes from the left-wing extremist scene”, Seehofer told the DPA news agency on Thursday, adding that a strong state needed a strong police force.
Leipzig Mayor Burkhard Jung, a member of the Social Democratic Party, weighed in in a similar way lamenting the non-peaceful start to the year:
“The New Year, unfortunately, did not begin peacefully at all, but started with a serious criminal outbreak of violence”, Jung told DPA. “My thoughts are with the injured policeman and his family, and I wish him a speedy recovery”.
After being attacked in the city's Connewitz district, one police officer had to undergo an emergency…
