Over 200 masked right-wing supporters, carrying placards with racist overtones, went on a rampage in the eastern city of Leipzig on Monday night, throwing fireworks, breaking windows and vandalising buildings, the police said.
Emotions are running high in German cities after gangs of young migrant men sexually assaulted women at New Year in mass attacks in Cologne and other towns. The attacks have deepened public scepticism towards Chancellor Angela Merkel's open-door refugee policy and her mantra that Germany can cope with the 1.1 million migrants who arrived in the country last year. It has also fuelled right-wing groups.
As roughly 2,000 anti-Muslim “LEGIDA” protesters marched peacefully in the city centre, police said a separate group of 211 people walked through the southern Connewitz district before setting of fireworks, erecting barricades and vandalising property. The top floor of one building caught fire.
The group carried a placard reading “Leipzig bleibt Helle,” or “Leipzig stays light,” an apparent reference to the skin colour of residents.
“The 211 people were to a not insignificant degree already on record as being right-wing sympathisers and or members of violent sporting groups,” said the police, adding officers brought the situation under control relatively quickly. Self-styled German soccer ‘hooligans’ tend to join right-wing groups on marches, sometimes starting fights.
