Leftist protesters took to the streets of Germany’s Chemnitz on Monday after a murder involving migrants where an Iraqi and a Syrian citizen were arrested over the killing of a German man which turned into violence and several people were injured during the protest.
Hundreds of police officers were last night working to keep rival protesters apart in the city where some chanting neo-Nazi slogans and giving Hitler salutes, clashed with counter-protesters over the fatal stabbing of the 35-year-old German man in a brawl.
The victim, named as Daniel Hillig, a local carpenter of Cuban descent, was fatally injured and later died in hospital, while two other men, reportedly in their 30s, suffered serious stab wounds.
Some carried banners or insignia of the far-right AfD and neo-Nazi NPD parties and other extremist groups, while a handful delivered the illegal right-handed Hitler salute, police said.
Among the estimated 800 people who took part in the first round of protests, about 50 were involved in violence and attacked police officers with bottles and stones, Chemnitz Police Chief Sonja Penzel said.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has condemned violent anti-migrant protests in the state of Saxony, saying “hate in the streets” has no place in the country.
“What we have seen is something which has no place in a constitutional democracy,” Merkel said Tuesday in Berlin, during a joint news conference alongside Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic.
“We have video recordings of people hunting down others, of unruly assemblies, and hate in the streets, and that has nothing to do with our constitutional state,” she said.
Angela Merkel’s spokesman said he condemns the groups ‘in the strongest possible terms’ after footage emerged of skinheads chasing a man of Arab appearance down the streets and throwing bottles at police and added that Germany would not tolerate ‘vigilante justice’.
> Shatabdi Sarker Poushi
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