Berlin security authorities say left-wing extremists have for days shared photos and videos of violence in France on social networks to encourage unrest in Germany. Experts in the security services believe the groups intend to use Halloween celebrations this Saturday for protests and, very likely, large-scale attacks on shops and police.
An unnamed officer of the police state-protection service told Bild that recent weeks had already brought targeted attacks on police officers by young people with a migrant background. Officers were drawn into traps by false emergency calls. When they reached a dark park or a deserted corner, blockades had been built. Attackers struck them with pyrotechnics and stones, then fled on e-scooters.
Authorities suspect this could become a pattern for the Halloween protests. A situation report from the North Rhine-Westphalia interior ministry treats closer cooperation between left-wing extremists and Islamists as especially worrying, saying the groups have come together in connection with the Middle East conflict. It says communist youth and cadre organisations have demonstrated with supporters of the Islamist Hamas. A particular role is given to Rote Jugend, a left-wing extremist organisation that for three years has appeared more often as a highly violence-prone group at demonstrations, especially protests against the AfD and attacks on police officers.
According to the North Rhine-Westphalia domestic intelligence service, the groups usually appear as closed blocs with communist symbols such as red flags, the hammer and sickle, and red balaclavas worn by everyone. One slogan says only the masses taking up the rifle will create socialism.
North Rhine-Westphalia interior minister Herbert Reul of the CDU told Bild that readiness for violence in left-wing extremism has clearly increased. He said the acts are becoming more brutal, more professional and more personal, and that collateral damage is accepted in the name of a supposedly higher goal. He called the movement a danger.
His Baden-Württemberg counterpart, Manuel Hagel, also of the CDU, warned ahead of the planned disturbances on Saturday that the authorities will act consistently where there is violence. He appealed to everyone who wants to take to the streets in the state on 31 October, saying people who draw attention to legitimate problems will be heard. He said rioting is not youth protest and the images from France are no model. In Baden-Württemberg, he said, protest can be loud but peaceful. Halloween is a festival for dressing up, and peaceful protest will not be permitted as cover for violence and destruction.