Politicians on riots in front of the Reichstag: "Unbearable attack on the heart of our democracy"

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Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier (archive): "My understanding ends where demonstrators allow themselves to be harnessed by agitators"

On Saturday evening, on the sidelines of the Corona protests, several hundred right-wing demonstrators broke through a cordon at the Reichstag building. They ran up the stairs to the Reichstag. Police officers pushed people back.

"Reich flags and right-wing extremist rabble in front of the German Bundestag are an unbearable attack on the heart of our democracy. We will never accept that," said Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier (SPD). Bundestag President Wolfgang Schäuble (CDU) and Federal Justice Minister Christine Lambrecht (SPD) also expressed criticism.

Steinmeier said anyone who is angry about the corona measures or doubts their necessity can do so, also in public and in demonstrations. "My understanding ends where demonstrators let themselves be harnessed to the carts of democracy enemies and political agitators," he added. Steinmeier thanked the police officers in Berlin who had acted "extremely prudently" in a difficult situation.

Demonstrate a central civil right

Schäuble said: "It affects us all when a violent, clearly right-wing radical minority wants to storm the seat of the people's representative body." After these scenes the last one should have understood "that there are also limits to decency, how far you can go along with who runs with you. Nobody can evade the responsibility of not being instrumentalized by extremists in their protest."

Schäuble also said that the corona demonstrations should be viewed differently. "The Basic Law also protects opinions that are viewed by the majority as grossly lacking in solidarity or even as absurd. And the right to demonstrate is a central civil right." But it is not unlimited, everything has a limit.

"It lies where legal requirements are deliberately violated or where the state's monopoly of force is attacked on the Reichstag building," said Schäuble.

Schäuble also thanked the security forces who had prevented worse. "However, the fact that this attack could even take place where the ban mile used to protect must be dealt with quickly and comprehensively."

"Enemies of our democracy"

Federal Minister of Justice Christine Lambrecht calls for a tough response from the state to the escalation of the demonstration by opponents of the corona protective measures in Berlin. "Against these enemies of our democracy we have to defend ourselves with all consistency," said the politician to the newspapers of the Funke media group on Sunday.

"The unbearable image of Reich citizens and neo-Nazis in front of the Reichstag must not be repeated - not in front of parliament and never in parliament." The democratic constitutional state guarantees the right of its citizens to demonstrate peacefully. "But anyone who attacks the Bundestag and waves the Reich flag shows nothing but hatred of democracy and contempt for everything that defines our country."

The initiator of the demonstration and rally with tens of thousands of people on Saturday in Berlin, Michael Ballweg, has distanced himself from the demonstrators at the Reichstag. "They have nothing to do with our movement," he said. The initiative "lateral thinking" is a peaceful and democratic movement, violence has no place there.

Ballweg sees responsibility for the riot in the city. He does not understand why the Berlin Senator for the Interior Andreas Geisel (SPD) "does not have the appropriate police forces to counter such actions" - especially since they were known beforehand.

jme / AFP / dpa / Reuters