Violence towards range competition: “Many speak of the return of the baseball club years. That fits into the picture” | EUROtoday

On Sunday, the rally “Bad Freienwalde is colorful” came about within the metropolis of the identical identify in Brandenburg for the fifth time. Suddenly, shortly earlier than the beginning at lunchtime, hooded rackers attacked the assembly with a people competition character. Observers assigned them to the precise -wing extremist scene. The “taz” quotes an eyewitness, based on which one of many attackers wore a black and white-red storm hood.

Citizens entered and drove out the attackers. On the web site of the organizer “Bad Freienwalde is colorful” it says “what happened afterwards”: “For the fifth time we have celebrated the diversity in our small town in the east of Brandenburg together with people from the region and guests, with queer people, people with escape and migration experience and people with disabilities across generations.”

Samuel Signer, 36, was head of the competition. Professionally, he’s a speaker on the community for democracy and braveness and works with college students.

WELT: Mr. Signer, the place had been you shortly earlier than twelve o’clock on Sunday?

Samuel Signer: About ten minutes earlier than we had sat down with the folders. We do that within the fifth yr, and we at all times take note of our safety as a result of we will sadly not depend on anybody else. When we had this final assembly, the attackers out of the blue ran from the west facet of {the marketplace} to the competition. Something between eight and 14 individuals got here up with the hill rushed down, all mumbled, partly with affect instruments in my hand, I noticed sticks. Of course, all of us jumped up instantly and bumped into this crowd of the attackers to cease them.

WELT: Then what occurred?

Signer: The attackers appeared very frightened. We have managed to drive you to the border of our occasion by screaming behind you to make it clear to you that you’re not welcome.

WELT: What did the attackers plan to do, do you assume?

Signer: It appeared as in the event that they wished to devastate the stands earlier than the beginning of the competition, perhaps destroy the occasion know-how. The official begin was solely at twelve o’clock. When the assault got here, perhaps 50 individuals had been there, together with the folders. And virtually everybody instantly stood towards the attackers. There is a video that exhibits how an older lady chases with a pot for a Nazi. Fantastic image.

After a number of seconds they shouted “demolition, demolition”. Such instructions present that they had been ready and arranged. When they left, they sadly attacked and injured a number of individuals. An individual has been kicked towards the chest, which signifies the fight capacity of the Nazis. Getting the leg so excessive shouldn’t be with out. And two individuals had been hit within the face.

WELT: With the flat hand or boxed?

Signer: Boxed with quartz sand gloves that reinforce the clout. However, we had been capable of provide all of the attacked individuals on website, no person needed to go to the hospital.

WELT: Were you afraid?

Signer: That was pure adrenaline, nevertheless it was not stunning for us that there could be such an assault sooner or later. But I’d nonetheless say that it was an extremely creepy scenario for me too, and I used to be undoubtedly afraid afterwards when the adrenaline subsided.

WELT: The police weren’t on website. Had requested the police to point out presence prematurely as assembly director?

Signer: Yes. I took the press right this moment that the police management believed that as a result of it was fifth of those festivals in a row, it was assuming that there was no nice hazard. An absurd evaluation as a result of there was a danger to us at each single occasion. And the police had been by no means there. Now you unfold that the police had been current, which isn’t true – there was a patrol someplace else within the metropolis and water safety police from or close by.

After the assault, over 20 law enforcement officials got here to protect the occasion, together with the Interior Minister (René Wilke, impartial, d. Red.). The effort may have been saved if two to 4 officers would have been on website from the beginning. This shouldn’t be the fault of the civil servants, to whom I personally have an excellent relationship, however the police management.

WELT: The competition then continued – and was even better than anticipated?

Signer: There had been 400 individuals, in recent times it was round 250. There was an excellent wave of solidarity after the information of the assault is rounding. It sounds absurd, after the assault, between so many officers, partly with a machine gun: the temper was unbelievable. The individuals on website are used to unhealthy issues. However, they can’t get it down. The neo -Nazis wished to interrupt the competition and us too. And none of it actually succeeded.

WELT: Was a dam break on Sunday? These neo -Nazis haven’t attacked a left -wing cultural middle, however a small metropolis competition in broad daylight, so to talk, an indefinite group of regular residents.

Signer: This was not a “indefinite attack”, however one on an anti -fascist road competition, formed by queer individuals and migrants, by anti -fascist and anti -racist initiatives. In this respect, this assault is a part of quite a few assaults “in bright day”, for instance or on anti -fascists on the Berlin Bahnhof Ostkreuz a yr in the past. It is true, the assault appears very blatant at first, and it was very blatant, however it’s on this continuity.

WELT: Nevertheless, along with the political orientation: it was a small road competition in a ten,000-inhabitant metropolis with drummer and youth theater teams, which grew to become the goal. The peaceable course of could be a matter in fact in Berlin or Cologne. Is it a significant metropolis ignorance to be stunned that an incident occurs like in Bad Freienwalde?

Signer: I do not wish to accommodate ignorance. But what’s true: What ought to be a matter in fact – a peaceable course of – it’s now not in lots of locations. In East German small cities, each competition that claims overtly that we don’t enable human contempt right here, per se already political, whether or not they need it or not. As somewhere else, violence has been introduced: roughly 50 announcement posters for the competition have been torn down.

Already at earlier festivals and related occasions within the metropolis we had individuals from the precise -wing extremist milieu who took images. People from the Neo-Nazi occasion Third away who distributed flyers towards us. People who’ve snapped cigarettes to guests. Once younger individuals ran very near the competition on an e-scooter with a telescopic stroke in hand; Others confirmed the White energy image and made it clear that they wish to be attacked as quickly as they discover somebody individually.

WELT: What time period do you will have for this – proper -wing highway terror?

Signer: Many converse of a return of the baseball slope years. And I believe that matches into the image of what I noticed yesterday.

WELT: In Brandenburg, the neo-Nazi group “last wave of defense” has just lately been excavated, the members are generally very younger youngsters. The attackers in Bad Freienwalde additionally appeared somewhat younger. What sort of youth tradition is that, the place does it come from?

Signer: There are very completely different currents, I believe that come collectively. Hardly talked about within the public debate: We have neo-Nazis right here in Märkisch-Oderland, have at all times existed, and so they get kids, and these kids elevate them to new neo-Nazis. This is the exhausting core, you may clearly reveal that on particular person household biographies. These kids and adolescents, in flip, can turn out to be ambiance in colleges. The scholar physique is heated on the Internet by top-class tictok movies that you simply deal with.

And on the identical time, statements within the different media are fueling the scenario: to be towards refugees, is exactly the order of the day from the AfD to the CDU to the SPD – so the younger individuals really feel in any case confirmed in taking radical positions. And all of this meets younger individuals, a few of whom have little views who spent their college days through the Corona interval. And instantly afterwards the subsequent disaster comes, the battle, that is completely blatant for everybody. In the meantime, there are fewer and fewer lecturers in Brandenburg who should catch all of this. And the rights provide quite simple solutions, for which the youthful ones are merely tremendous responsibly.

WELT: And the steadiness of energy?

Signer: Well, we see: 30 % select the AfD, in fact an enormous downside, but in addition 70 % of the individuals don’t select. But the issue is, and I can solely let you know precisely for my skilled college: This theoretical majority is generally silent. If you will have 200 pupils at a faculty, to whom 20 to 30 organized rights are against younger individuals, they’ll form the local weather as a result of a big majority of the scholars and generally additionally lecturers are generally ignorant.

The aim of political training ought to due to this fact be – no matter whether or not it appeals to younger individuals or adults – to interrupt by way of this ignorance and to encourage individuals to intrude, to form their society. And on this scenario, particular political training ought to be saved. That too is absurd.

Jan Alexander Casper experiences on home subjects for the world.