Hesse interior minister deploys special commission after Frankfurt riots

Berlins GdP chief Stephan Weh warns of copycat crimes and riot tourism following the Gen-Z protests. Peaceful demonstrations were deliberately exploited to commit crimes.

Hesse Interior Minister Roman Poseck (CDU) has drawn up a preliminary assessment following the riots in Frankfurt. A total of 1,500 violent troublemakers were on the streets, the youngest just 13 years old. The AfD accuses the state government of failure.

Poseck Announces Consequence Strafverfolgung

Hesse Interior Minister Roman Poseck (CDU) has announced consistent criminal prosecution and a thorough review following the riots in Frankfurt/Main.

"The night must have clear consequences. This perpetrator group was predominantly of migrant background. And we must confront that as well," he said in Frankfurt. "There must be no false taboos here." A special commission has already been established. The perpetrators must feel the full force of the rule of law.

Hesse security authorities would in future focus even more strongly on these violence-prone young people with migrant backgrounds. "I want to say very clearly: in doing so, we also protect the many people with migrant backgrounds in our country who abide by the law," Poseck said.

All events relating to the Gen-Z protests can be followed in our live ticker.

Damage and Arrests

A total of 17 shops were damaged during the riots, five were looted. According to Poseck, there were 54 arrests. The suspects were between 13 and 29 years old. Police assume they faced 1,000 to 1,500 violent troublemakers, "predominantly from the migrant milieu."

Demonstrator in a "Batman" costume at the protests in Frankfurt. Source: Kai Pfaffenbach/REUTERS

He described the riots as a "difficult night with partly horrifying excesses of violence." "I saw images that do not belong in our cityscape," the interior minister continued at the press conference. Violence and destruction had dominated the night in Frankfurt.

"I must say that what I saw deeply shook me," he continued. It could not go on like this. "We must not leave the country to those who act so violently against our police." During the operation, 100 police officers were injured, one of them seriously.

The police deployed water cannons against demonstrators. Source: Florian Wiegand/dpa

Dobrindt: "Violent Left-Wing Groups and Thugs from the Migrant Milieu"

Federal Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt (CSU) also commented on the events: "Violent left-wing groups and thugs from the migrant milieu hijacked the peaceful demonstrations of the afternoon yesterday evening," the CSU politician told Bild. "The rioters and looters will be identified and held accountable. This breach of the peace must be followed by harsh punishments."

At the same time, he praised the actions of the security forces. "Excesses of violence like those in Paris were prevented thanks to our highly committed police forces," Dobrindt said. "The police's operational concept with massive presence and decentralized deployment of forces worked."

Source: Florian Wiegand/dpa

AfD Accuses State Government of Failure

The AfD parliamentary group in the Hesse state parliament accused Hesse Interior Minister Poseck of failing to prevent "French conditions." "The violence in Frankfurt am Main is frightening and once again an urgent call to the black-red coalition to finally look more closely at left-wing extremists and migrant violence," said parliamentary group leader Robert Lambrou. "It is obvious that unresolved problems with migration are also at stake here."

Something had begun to slip in society. "Why do young people, most of them with migrant backgrounds, loot a weapons shop in Frankfurt of all places?" Lambrou asked. His parliamentary group would make the violence a topic in the state parliament. France had also experienced severe riots in the course of social protests.

Police union chief Manuel Ostermann sees left-wing extremists behind the escalation of the GenZ protests. He warns of further radicalization and calls on politicians to combat extremism "comprehensively."

"We Are All Surprised by the Scale"

Clean-up work was in full swing in Frankfurt city center. Shop owners such as Jost Wiebelhaus of the Frankfurt running shop took stock of the damage caused by the rioters on Saturday evening in daylight. "We were all surprised that it reached such proportions," the shop owner told a dpa reporter.

The shop is located in the immediate vicinity of Konstablerwache in Frankfurt city center, one of the hotspots of the riots. Rioters had smashed shop windows, shops were looted, including a weapons shop.

Numerous volunteers helped with the clean-up in the city center. "After what we saw yesterday evening, yesterday night, we simply don't want to leave it at that. That is not what Frankfurt stands for," said one of them, Maximilian Roth, to the dpa news agency. "We wanted to set an example today that the city stands behind the businesses here, behind the people, and that the people who ran riot here yesterday are not representative of Frankfurt."

Ein nach Krawallen beschädigtes Waffenfachgeschäft in Frankfurt. Quelle: Jason Tschepljakow/dpa

dpa/rct