After the “Day X” demo was banned, there were riots between demonstrators and the police in Leipzig. After initially peaceful meetings, the situation escalated in the early evening, the police speak of “massive riots”.
In Leipzig on Saturday after the verdict against Lina E. for left-wing extremist acts of violence, there were renewed clashes between the police and demonstrators. At a demonstration at Alexis-Schumann-Platz there were gunshots, stones, bottles and an incendiary device were thrown at police officers.
The police surrounded some of the demonstrators and spoke of “massive riots” in the south of Leipzig. A spokesman said several water cannons were positioned but not used.
Police: Peaceful assembly escalated
According to the police, around 1,500 participants gathered for the demonstration on Saturday afternoon, a third of whom are said to be violent. 100 demonstrators were registered. The meeting initially remained peaceful, but then escalated. Several officers were hit and injured by stones and other projectiles, a police spokesman said. The police initially gave no information on the exact number of injured officers.
“The situation on Karl-Liebknecht-Strasse is becoming unpeaceful. Our forces are repeatedly attacked and thrown at with stones/pyrotechnics,” wrote the Saxony police on Twitter.
One appeals to all people there to distance themselves from criminals and to behave peacefully. “Bystanders are asked to leave or avoid the area.”
Demonstration against the conviction of the student Lina E.
Left-wing circles were mobilized nationwide for the demonstration on Saturday. The reason is the verdict against Lina E. and three co-defendants for attacks on alleged or actual neo-Nazis, in which several people were injured, some seriously. The 28-year-old was sentenced to five years and three months in prison by the Dresden Higher Regional Court on Wednesday.
The situation initially remained peaceful until the afternoon. Despite the final ban on a large “Day X” demonstration by the radical left-wing scene, the police were present in large numbers in the city.
In addition, the Saxony Cup final, the city festival and a concert by Herbert Grönemeyer took place in the city. There were checkpoints all day long on access roads to the city and at the train station. Several vehicles and garbage cans were on fire early Saturday afternoon.
Criticism of the actions of the police
After the riots, the Left Party criticized the actions of the police. Your head of parliament in the Saxon state parliament, Marco Böhme, accused the police on Twitter of having allowed the situation to escalate with the “actual ban”.
Kerstin Köditz, member of the state parliament for the Left Party, criticized the decision not to let the demonstrators go. The left-wing alliance “Dresden Nazi-free” described the behavior of the police as “martial”.
Already heavy on Friday riots
There had already been riots in Connewitz on Friday evening. Masked men attacked police officers. After the initially peaceful course of a meeting on Wiedebachplatz in the Connewitz district, stones were thrown out of a crowd of up to 700 hooded people and pyrotechnics were detonated. Barricades made of rubbish bins and construction site barriers burned both there and in side streets. The police used tear gas and, according to their own statements, objects were thrown at them from the roofs of houses.
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