Jugendproteste: Merz befürwortet hartes Vorgehen gegen Krawallmacher

Following the riots that erupted in various German cities over the weekend, Federal Chancellor Friedrich Merz has advocated for a tough approach towards the violent perpetrators. At the same time, he expressed understanding for some concerns of the young demonstrators. "Violence has no place on our streets, and my government will show no tolerance here," reads the script prepared by CDU's state chairmen for their conference, as reported by the German Press Agency.

The chancellor emphasized: "Attacking policemen and public employees, plundering shops, that attacks our freedom, humiliates society and disregards the legitimate interests of young people." The perpetrators would feel the harshness of the law. Merz explicitly thanked the police for their exemplary response. He also pointed out that the majority of young people had demonstrated peacefully.

As a positive sign from the weekend, he noted: "The younger generation is politically active and concerned about their future." Merz acknowledged that there were deficits in housing issues and that households should be relieved so that the states could invest more in education. "All these topics are at the top of our work agenda."

The responsible education minister Karin Prien (CDU) will further develop the conversation with the younger generation. Over the weekend, tens of thousands of young people had mostly peaceful demonstrations. Then came the violent riots. In Frankfurt, stones and Molotov cocktails were thrown, shop windows were smashed, and there were loots.

Over 100 police officers were injured. Similar incidents occurred in Cologne, Hamburg, and Berlin after initially peaceful demonstrations, but not as intensely as in Frankfurt. Dobrindt stirred controversy with his statement about "violent left-wing groups and migrant hooligans" after the riots. Hessens Interior Minister Roman Poseck (CDU) stated that the perpetrator group was predominantly migrant.

This led the SPD politician Boris Pistorius to point out, "What are migrant groups? Are they people who have lived in Germany for three generations and are German citizens? Where do we draw the line?" Dobrindt's exact words were: "There were peaceful demonstrations that turned into violence at night by violent left-wing groups and migrant hooligans."

Prien responded that violent excesses had occurred by left-wing radical groups "but also by others who may also come from migrant backgrounds," said the Education Minister in the Deutschlandfunk. Prien added, "This is not about stirring up resentments, which would be politically wrong." Rather, it is about recognizing the reality and understanding why people resort to such means.

"And if they come from migrant backgrounds, then that should concern us and we must look into the causes," she said. A question is why integration succeeds less in some groups than in others. Hessens Interior Minister pointed to the migrant background In relation to the riots in Frankfurt, Poseck said that the arrested persons had "mostly German citizenship."

Later, World TV confirmed that many arrested persons did have German citizenship, but they mostly had a migrant background. The question was asked what the police knew about the background of suspects. The police can generally provide information about the nationality of suspects, but not whether someone is the grandchild of an immigrant.

For the question of migrant background, it does not matter whether someone has a German passport. According to the Federal Statistical Office like most research, the concept of migrant background is defined as: If someone or at least one parent was not born in Germany, there is a migrant background. Someone has a migrant background if they or both parents were born abroad.

There are also a number of other undefined terms like "persons with a migration background" or "migrant-identified individuals" to refer to people with family roots abroad or perceived as such. Halloween in Cologne Among the riots involving Gen-Z protests in Cologne, the participants were largely from the left-autonomous spectrum, according to the police.

Leading Police Director Martin Lotz emphasized that other rioters, who were on the streets at other locations within the city limits, had no connection to the actual protests. "That grew overnight, and it was in groups of 200 to 300 people, mostly young people." Therefore, it is not yet possible to make meaningful statements about the number of detained individuals.

"We had something on many corners in the night." They need to look closely at each incident to determine which events had what background. In recent years, a rise in violent readiness on Halloween night has been noted.