26 injured police officers, 131 people temporarily in custody, 125 criminal charges: That is the balance of the police after the riots on Saturday on the sidelines of the Eritrea Festival in Giessen. It was quiet there on Sunday.
After the riots on the sidelines of the Eritrea Festival in Giessen, 125 criminal charges have been filed so far. As the police said, it was almost exclusively about cases of breach of the peace. 131 people were taken into custody. 26 police officers were injured, according to the preliminary balance sheet in the evening. The originally stated number of 28 injured was thus corrected slightly downwards. According to the current status, none of the visitors and opponents of the festival was seriously injured.
Despite the riots on Saturday, the festival continued on Sunday. It remained calm. Nevertheless, the police remained on site until the end with a larger number of officers from several federal states.
On Saturday, opponents of the event attacked police officers with stones and bottles and detonated smoke bombs. They broke through barriers and tried to get onto the festival site. The police used pepper spray and batons. There were also clashes with the police in the city.
Lord Mayor calls for a reappraisal of the events
Gießen’s Mayor Frank-Tilo Becher (SPD) calls for a reappraisal of the events surrounding the Eritrea Festival. “The pictures that went around the world from our city at the weekend are unbearable,” said Becher, according to a statement from the city. Thousands of uninvolved citizens were massively restricted in their everyday life for more than a whole day. “In view of this, you really have to ask the question: Are these restrictions still in the right proportion to the organizer’s desire to celebrate a festival? This question needs to be addressed at all levels – politically and legally,” said Becher.
Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) condemned the violence. Hesse’s Interior Minister Peter Beuth (CDU) called on the federal government to summon the state’s ambassador. “Our police officers are not the buffer stop for conflicts in third countries.” Thorsten Frei, the first parliamentary secretary of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group, called for an “end to naivety in migration policy”. He told the dpa news agency: “Anyone who accepts uncontrolled migration or – like the Greens – even promotes it regularly should not be surprised at the consequences.” AfD Vice-Chairman Stephan Brandner criticized that the Eritrea Festival was allowed to take place in Germany. “The dictatorship may celebrate itself in Eritrea. Something like that has no place in our country.”
Courts had lifted the festival ban
The city had tried to prevent the festival. However, the administrative courts lifted the ban. The organizer of the festival was the Central Council of Eritreans in Germany, which is controversial because of its closeness to the regime in the country on the Horn of Africa. As early as August 2022, there had been violent riots with injured visitors and police officers at the previous event.
This year there were calls on social media to use force to prevent the event, the police said. These were directed against the visitors of the event and against the police. During consultations with the municipality, the danger prognosis was outlined in the course of the arrival of violent disruptors, also from other European countries, in the event that the event takes place. “Unfortunately, the police assessment of the risk situation was confirmed by the course of yesterday.”
In Eritrea, President Isayas Afewerki rules the country in a one-party dictatorship. Freedom of expression and freedom of the press are severely restricted. It was only in March that the UN sounded the alarm about the “catastrophic” human rights situation. Many people flee Eritrea, for example to avoid long military service. According to the Federal Foreign Office, around 70,000 Eritrean nationals live in Germany. According to the Federal Agency for Civic Education, the Eritrean government is trying to influence young Eritreans abroad with a youth department abroad and, among other things, to collect donations at festivals. Opponents of the Eritrean regime consider the festival in Giessen to be a propaganda event by the country’s government.