Some 60 police officers were injured in clashes near a squat in Berlin, one of the last libertarian remnants of the German capital, police said on Wednesday (June 16).
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On the eve of a fire inspection of this squat located in the heart of Berlin, the police were thrown by stones by about 200 people from the street and the roof of the building located on Rigaer Strasse, in the district of Friedrichshain, in the former East Berlin. Protesters also briefly formed a barricade in the middle of the street, setting fire to wooden slats and car tires, police said. The police, after receiving reinforcements, dispersed the demonstration and extinguished the fire using water cannons. "
About 60 colleagues were injured,
" Berlin police said on Twitter.
The demonstrators intended to protest, according to the police, against a ban on assemblies and parking ordered on the eve of an inspection of the building. The building, occupied since 1990, has been the subject of litigation for years between its occupants and the municipal authorities. It is considered a meeting place for the far left scene. Eviction attempts have repeatedly resulted in clashes with the police.
After the fall of the Wall in 1989, entire city blocks, abandoned in the east of the capital, were taken over by students, young creatives, artists or activists from West Berlin. Some occupations were then legalized. Under real estate pressure, many of these alternative haunts have disappeared in recent years, ravishing part of Berlin's bohemian and trendy identity. Rents have doubled in ten years in Berlin, a metropolis of four million inhabitants where, despite the very large area and the construction frenzy, the lack of accessible housing is becoming glaring.