The Security Conference, or Siko for short, means a state of emergency. For the participants who try within a few hours to establish diplomatic networks in tightly timed talks. For the people of Munich who, because of the event in the Bayerischer Hof and the protests against it, cannot move through the city center on the usual routes. And for the police, who guarantee the safety of everyone involved, but never know exactly how many opponents they will have to deal with and what they may be determined to do.
In this stressful situation, there were disturbing scenes this weekend – at an event that was not directly connected to Siko, but would have gone differently on another weekend. The police used batons and pepper spray against participants in a train to commemorate the attack in which a 43-year-old killed nine people in Hanau two years ago for racist reasons. According to the police, targeted provocations preceded the pulling out of the baton. Not true, counter Antifa activists. What was action and what was reaction in the turbulence is difficult to fathom. But one thing is certain: there are now – once again – pictures from Munich that serve the narrative, the law enforcement officers here like to take action particularly courageously when they are dealing with dissatisfied people who come from the politically more left-wing spectrum.
Some operations against the protests at the International Motor Show last year had supported this thesis, as well as the initially cautious approach of the police to removals, which were initiated out of resistance to the Covid protective measures in the slipstream of right-wing forces and where the law enforcement officers only took their lax line gave up when they were overrun on Ludwigstrasse. Is it better to show determination or restraint?
This fundamental question comes up again and again, and the answer has to be carefully considered each time. Stress doesn’t help, and in retrospect it can be stated: To demonstratively oppose such a large array of state power to those who wanted to remind people of the terrible deed in Hanau shows a lack of tact – precisely because there are also failings on the part of security authorities when dealing with them goes. With a sure instinct, however, many a baton can be prevented from being used.