Alice
Weidel
Violence
in Stuttgart
German
Bundestag, July 3, 2020, Plenarprotokoll 19/171, pp. 21491-21492
[Alice Weidel is a chairman of the
Alternative für Deutschland delegation in the German Bundestag as well as AfD
chairman in the western German state of Baden-Württemberg.]
The
rubble in Stuttgart’s inner city has been cleared away, the fragments of the shattered
display windows and plundered shops swept up. Yet the shock still abides deeply
with the police officers who were
attacked with maximum brutality by an organized mob and whose cudgeled
colleagues are in the hospital, and with the citizens whose apparently peaceful
city became over-night a showplace of scenes similar to civil war.
After
the Stuttgart riot night [Krawallnacht],
we cannot simply continue as before, as if there was no fundamental problem.
Not only Stuttgart, every German city, the entire country has a problem; and
that problem is not called racism, that problem is called political failure.
The
violence on the streets of Stuttgart did not come out of the clear, blue sky.
It was no Party and Event Scene having its fling. Rowdies and brawlers are not
party people but criminals who must be strictly punished.
This
trivialization is besides an insult to peaceful party goers, to bar patrons and
club members suffering under the much too long and harsh lockdown and the
continuing Corona restrictions. The mob in Stuttgart which challenged the state’s
monopoly of force and made targeted attacks upon police officers as deputies of
state authority was recruited from two groups: Aggressive, young men with
migrant backgrounds and organized, violence-prone leftist extremists. Both are
the fruit of a false, irresponsible policy.
An
immigration which is in fact unlimited and uncontrolled has in the meantime lead
to a situation in many German cities where there is a critical potential of
young men, mainly from Islamic-oriental cultures, who more or less despise the
German state and the majority society.
Timon Gremmels (SPD): Lübcke’s
murderer despised the state! Who donated
to you!
Along
with that is the political and even in part publicly financed coddling of
radical leftist groups which disguise themselves as fighters against the right.
That has favored the formation of an organized and militant extreme leftist milieu
which openly challenges the state of law and claims for itself areas free from
the law.
A
majority of this house a few weeks ago refused to vote for a ban on
leftist-terrorist Antifa groups.
Gabriele Katzmarek (SPD): Now that
is just idiotic!
The
Stuttgart Krawallnacht is just one of
the many receipts which are still to be presented.
And
it is a receipt for the unexampled playing with fire which has increasingly
gone about this country in recent weeks. The moral arsonists
Helin Sommer (Linke): You are the moral
arsonists!
are
before all to be found on the green-red side of the political spectrum,
unfortunately in this house – and by that I certainly mean you
Helin Sommer (Linke): You are the moral
arsonists!
there,
where one mindlessly acknowledges oneself to be a so-called Antifa, lying about
its extreme leftist background, a dubious movement which is hostile to the
state of law, and where the police and security forces are disassembled,
accused of a general racism and placed under suspicion.
Armin-Paulus Hampel (AfD): Go to the
devil!
This
irresponsible talk by all those who reject this state and legal order, with or
without migrant background, with or without a German passport, is to be
understood as an encouragement to experiment with revolt and civil war, just as
we have seen.
A
state which can no longer guarantee the security of its citizens, and cannot
generally and at any time enforce law and statute, puts its own legitimacy at
risk. For this duty, our police officers require more than lip service and good
wishes; they require complete political backing!
Helin Sommer (Linke): Not defined by
you!
That
is also called: A policy which without prejudice opposes anyone who posits
extremism, who attacks the state of law and the public order, and expels from
the country anyone who abuses the law of hospitality
Helin Sommer (Linke): Who are here
in house!
and
attacks the state and its deputies.
Timon Gremmels (SPD): Clean up your
own act!
To
openly address the facts and maldevelopments is the first step toward again
enforcing the order of the state of law to its full extent. The Stuttgart Krawallnacht was also a wake up call
with which to finally get started.
I
am grateful.
Helin Sommer (Linke): Shame on you!
Shame
on you with your attack squad!
[Translated by Todd Martin]
