After demos in Leipzig: “It needs peace and serenity now”

After “Day X”, the actions of the police and the city of Leipzig are under criticism. In an interview, Fiedler, member of the Bundestag, defends the authorities and pleads against actionism in the left-wing extremism debate.

tagesschau.de: Mr. Fiedler, in advance you defended the far-reaching restrictions on meetings in Leipzig, including a ban on demonstrations. From today’s perspective, was the ban right?

Sebastian Fiedler: The ban on gatherings was obviously required by the rule of law. There were many announcements of violence beforehand. This made it clear that the limits of the right of assembly would be exceeded. Courts have confirmed this view.

At the weekend, however, there were massive outbreaks of violence and injured police officers. Serious breach of the peace is in question. These have not been harmless days.

tagesschau.de: How do you rate the tactics of the police, which have also received criticism from the SPD?

Fiddler: I don’t know the procedure in detail. But I certainly can’t see that the police made any serious mistakes. But on the contrary. At the demos, many people moved far outside the right to demonstrate.

No justification for violence

tagesschau.de: The criticism is directed, among other things, at a police camp in which people had to endure up to eleven hours.

Fiddler: The police tried to keep the situation under control as much as possible. If there has been a serious breach of the peace, it is her duty to determine the personal details and initiate criminal proceedings. Hence the kettle. It may have taken a while. But it didn’t hit ordinary protesters or casual walkers, but apparently those suspected of these serious acts of violence. The meeting had previously been dissolved.

tagesschau.de: On-site observers assess the composition of the people in the boiler differently. And your party colleague from Saxony, Albrecht Pallas, who is a police officer like you, says in general that the massive police presence had an escalating effect, which mostly affected bystanders. Isn’t that true?

Fiddler: I can’t rate that because I wasn’t there. But cause and effect are clearly distributed here. Absolutely nothing justifies throwing stones or incendiary devices at police officers.

tagesschau.de: It was said beforehand that the peaceful left-wing scene should have an effect on violent groups. According to reports, this has hardly or not at all succeeded. Isn’t that also due to the massive presence of the police?

Fiddler: Anyone who commits acts of violence against police officers commits them against us, against society. There is no justification for this. This is also not related to an “appearance of the police” or the like. Anyone who does something like this has already been completely blinded.

This part of the left-wing extremist scene has long been pursuing the ideological program of getting rid of our free democratic constitutional state and, among other things, abolishing the police. They think violence is legitimate. None of them thought about it until this weekend.

Authorities structurally well positioned

tagesschau.de: Federal Interior Minister Faeser now wants to keep the violent left-wing extremist scene “closely in focus”. CDU Interior Minister Armin Schuster demands from Saxony nationwide overall concept against left-wing extremism. This begs the question: What have the authorities done so far?

Fiddler: In the past, the criminal strategic focus of the federal and state governments was not on left-wing extremism. We mainly dealt with it on an ad hoc basis, for example with the Hambach Forest.

However, the federal government only has limited powers. As for the distribution of tasks, the states are initially responsible. They have a massive resource problem. You need to strengthen your staff here and harmonize concepts. It therefore makes sense if the conference of interior ministers should address this on Thursday.

Structurally, many precautions have long been taken. There is the Joint Center for Countering Extremism and Terrorism, the GETZ. Over 40 state and federal authorities are represented there and focus on left-wing extremism, among other things.

And as terrible as these riots in Leipzig are, one cannot conclude that we are structurally wrong. So far, left-wing extremism has just not been a political focus.

tagesschau.de: According to BKA statistics, in 2022 the fewest left-wing violent acts in the past ten years were recorded. They are well below the values ​​for right-wing extremist motivated acts. Is the currently intensified discussion about left-wing extremism justified?

Fiddler: Partly. For many years I have criticized a reactive criminal policy that is driven by individual events. What we are now discussing has long been analytically precise in the federal and state intelligence reports. It is written down how many violent left-wing extremists we have and what that means in detail, these acts of violence. The events in Leipzig should not come as a complete surprise to us.

I don’t think much of political activism. Calm and composure is now needed for the authorities to position themselves strategically. It has to be balanced. You can’t dismantle extremist currents in three weeks. And number one is and remains right-wing extremism. Because it hits the state from within.

The interview was conducted by Thomas Vorreyer, tagesschau.de