For all his faults, Kohl united Germany, Merkel not so much:
Over 200 masked right-wing supporters, carrying placards with racist overtones, went on a rampage in the eastern city of Leipzig on Monday night, throwing fireworks, breaking windows and vandalizing buildings, police said. Emotions are running high in German cities after gangs of young migrant men sexually assaulted women at New Year in mass attacks in Cologne and other towns. The attacks have deepened public scepticism towards Chancellor Angela Merkel’s open-door refugee policy and her mantra that Germany can cope with the 1.1 million migrants who arrived in the country last year. It has also fueled right-wing groups.
As roughly 2,000 anti-Muslim “LEGIDA” protesters marched peacefully in the city center, police said a separate group of 211 people walked through the southern Connewitz district before setting of fireworks, erecting barricades and vandalizing property. The top floor of one building caught fire.
The group carried a placard reading “Leipzig bleibt Helle”, or “Leipzig stays light”, an apparent reference to the skin color of residents. “The 211 people were to a not insignificant degree already on record as being right-wing sympathizers and or members of violent sporting groups,” said police, adding officers brought the situation under control relatively quickly.Self-styled German soccer ‘hooligans’ tend to join right-wing groups on marches, sometimes starting fights.The police put the right-wingers in a bus which was then attacked by left-wing supporters.
At the LEGIDA protest, people shouted “Merkel must go” and held placards showing the chancellor in a Muslim veil and reading “Merkel, take your Muslims with you and get lost”.
Police said groups linked to Cologne’s hooligan scene had used social media to organise gatherings in the inner city on Sunday evening, launching a spate of attacks against Pakistani, Syrian and African men.
The Daily Mail has more:
Two Pakistani nationals were admitted to hospital after six men were attacked by a mob of 20 people near [Cologne's] main train station – the scene of the New Years Eve attacks – on Sunday. It is unclear what their condition is although the police are looking to press charges of ’serious bodily harm’ against their attackers who kicked, beat and abused them verbally.
Disgusting, but, even if we remember (as we must) that thugs will use just about any excuse to do what they do, these events are also yet another reminder of just how careless Merkel has been with Germany’s social cohesion.
Meanwhile, via Open Europe, this:
Hans-Jürgen Papier, the former President of the German Constitutional Court, has intervened in Germany’s migration debate in a front page interview with Handelsblatt. “Never before in the rule of the Federal Republic has the gap between law and reality been as wide as it is currently,” he says, accusing German Chancellor Angela Merkel and her government of “glaring policy failures” on the migration crisis. He calls on Merkel to “U-turn” and to “temporarily suspend the Schengen-rules,” calling the Cologne sex attacks, “a manifestation of a partial betrayal of the state guarantee of freedom and security towards its citizens.”
And YouGov (my emphasis added):
A Divided Germany?New research by YouGov in Germany for the Bild newspaper reveals a sharp hardening of attitudes to immigration following the attacks in Cologne. On November 20 a slim majority of 53% said the number of asylum seekers in Germany was already too high, however 42% said the current numbers were acceptable (22%) or that Germany could even accept more (21%). Now however, fully 62% say the number of asylum seekers is too high, while only one in three say the current numbers are acceptable (16%) or could be higher (18%).