Thuringia: Left wants to address right-wing attacks in Erfurt

Erfurt (dpa/th) - After several attacks in Erfurt, allegedly from the right-wing spectrum, the left-wing parliamentary group wants to turn on the state parliament's interior committee.

Thuringia: Left wants to address right-wing attacks in Erfurt

Erfurt (dpa/th) - After several attacks in Erfurt, allegedly from the right-wing spectrum, the left-wing parliamentary group wants to turn on the state parliament's interior committee. "For several weeks, a whole series of extreme right-wing, anti-Semitic and racist attacks has been observed in Erfurt," said Left Party MP Katharina König-Preuss on Friday. "There is a growing danger that a space of fear will develop here and that there will be a dangerous situation for people who do not fit into the right-wing, racist and anti-Semitic world view of the neo-Nazis." König-Preuss referred, among other things, to an incident on Friday night in the north of Erfurt.

According to the police, a group had shouted anti-constitutional slogans in the direction of a meeting point for the left-wing scene and insulted members of this scene. The police are investigating, among other things, because of hate speech, use of unconstitutional license plates and threats.

According to the police, a seven-year-old girl was seriously injured in mid-August by a glass bottle that a 40-year-old man had thrown at the child. He and a 34-year-old had previously racially insulted children playing on a skating rink and their families. At the beginning of August, the German trade union federation complained about damage to union cars in Erfurt, with a swastika having been scratched into the paintwork of one of the cars.

According to the MP, one of the starting points for the violence is a property newly used by the far-right scene. "Again it shows the dangers of these properties as retreats for the scene," she explained. According to the Ministry of the Interior, 18 properties are known in Thuringia that are used by the right-wing extremist scene for their own purposes.