In the last instance, the Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe rejected an urgent application to ban the “Day X” demonstration in Leipzig. Despite the demo ban, the police have prepared for further operations.
The appeal to the Federal Constitutional Court against the ban on the left-wing “Day X” demonstration in Leipzig has failed. A spokesman in Karlsruhe announced that the urgent application with a constitutional complaint had not been accepted for decision and was therefore irrelevant for the court.
The decisions of the Saxon Higher Administrative Court and the Leipzig Administrative Court on Friday, according to which the ban is legal, remain in place. The urgent application against the demo ban was received in Karlsruhe on Saturday morning.
Left-wing circles were mobilized nationwide for the demonstration on Saturday at 5 p.m. There had already been riots. Despite the final ban, the police in Leipzig are assuming further operations in the city.
Demonstration against conviction of student
The reason for the planned demonstration, which was banned by the city of Leipzig, was the verdict against the student Lina E. and three other accused of assaulting right-wing extremists. The 28-year-old was sentenced to five years and three months in prison by the Dresden Higher Regional Court on Wednesday for left-wing violence.
The reason for the ban were threats of violence in social networks, the risk forecast by the police and assessments by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution.
Complaints against this before the Administrative Court and the Higher Administrative Court in Saxony were unsuccessful. According to a statement from the Higher Administrative Court, the ban is a serious encroachment on the fundamental right to freedom of assembly. However, it is permissible to protect equivalent legal interests.
The city had plausibly predicted “an expected violent course of the meeting and thus an immediate danger to public safety”. It is very likely that participants planned violence against people or things or at least approved of such behavior by others.
2500 police officers on duty
A so-called control area has been in effect in Leipzig since Friday 6 p.m., which includes large parts of the city in the east, south and west. There, the police can stop people and check their personal details for no particular reason. Arrival traffic on the streets and at the main station is also controlled. After MDR-Information should be 2500 civil servants in the city. The police tweeted that several helicopters were also in use over the city today.
Several injured after riots
The first riots broke out in the city on Friday evening. Masked men had attacked police officers. After the initially peaceful course of a meeting on Wiedebachplatz in the Connewitz district, stones and pyrotechnics flew out of a crowd of up to 700 hooded people. Barricades made of rubbish bins and construction site barriers burned both there and in side streets.
The police used tear gas and said they were “objects thrown at” from the roofs of houses. Most of the burning barricades were extinguished shortly after midnight, some with the help of water cannons. According to initial findings, 23 officers were injured. One of them required hospital treatment. According to the police, a journalist was attacked by an unknown person and slightly injured.
On the night of Saturday, barricades burned in Leipzig. Several people were injured.
Several largeevents in Leipzig
17 police vehicles were damaged and eight vehicles were set on fire. Among them were also cars from residents, it said. By early morning there had been four preliminary arrests – among other things for serious breaches of the peace.
In addition to “Day X”, there are a number of other major events in Leipzig this weekend. It’s a city festival, singer Herbert Grönemeyer is giving a concert in front of tens of thousands of visitors and on Saturday the football clubs Lok Leipzig and Chemnitzer FC are playing for the Saxony Cup. A cancellation of the game was considered, but ultimately rejected.