EUROPE-MIGRANTS/GERMANY German vice chancellor condemns recent violence outside refugee shelter

Record ID: 142722

  • Title: EUROPE-MIGRANTS/GERMANY German vice chancellor condemns recent violence outside refugee shelter
  • Date: 24th August 2015
  • Summary: HEIDENAU, GERMANY (AUGUST 24, 2015) (REUTERS) TAXI ENTERING PREMISES OF REFUGEE SHELTER WHERE RIGHT-WING MILITANTS AND RACISTS SCUFFLED WITH POLICE DURING TWO CONSECUTIVE NIGHTS, JOURNALISTS WAITING OUTSIDE CAR CARRYING GERMAN DEPUTY CHANCELLOR AND ECONOMY MINISTER SIGMAR GABRIEL ARRIVING JOURNALISTS GABRIEL IN DISCUSSION WITH LOCAL WOMAN, TELLING HER HE IS IMPRESSED WITH HER EFFORTS TO HELP REFUGEES TO WHICH SHE REPLIES "I AM THINKING OF THE POOR PEOPLE BECAUSE A MOTHER THINKS DIFFERENTLY. I THANK YOU FOR THIS CONVERSATION" GABRIEL WALKING OFF (SOUNDBITE) (German) GERMAN DEPUTY CHANCELLOR AND ECONOMY MINISTER, SIGMAR GABRIEL, SAYING: "Europe will not fail with the euro or the financial issues of Greece but it is facing huge problems and great setbacks if we don't succeed in dealing with the refugee issue adequately and fairly. This includes no longer turning a blind eye to it and a fair distribution of the refugees across Europe." JOURNALISTS (SOUNDBITE) (German) GERMAN DEPUTY CHANCELLOR AND ECONOMY MINISTER, SIGMAR GABRIEL, SAYING: "These people (right-wing militants) have nothing to do with Germany. This is not the type of Germany we want to have in our country. They think they are the representatives of the true Germany. In reality, they are the most un-German people I can imagine." JOURNALISTS (SOUNDBITE) (German) GERMAN DEPUTY CHANCELLOR AND ECONOMY MINISTER, SIGMAR GABRIEL, SAYING: "People coming here to scream slogans, to throw incendiary agents and rocks and to call via the Internet for killing or injuring people deserve only one response: you are not part of us, we do not want you here and where we can get you, we will punish you and put you behind bars." CAMERAWOMAN FILMING GABRIEL WALKING OFF WEISSACH, GERMANY (AUGUST 24, 2015) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF EXTERIOR OF SMOULDERING HOUSE WHICH TOWN OF WEISSACH, NORTH OF STUTTGART, INTENDED TO RENOVATE TO ACCOMMODATE REFUGEES FROM DECEMBER 2015 (SOUNDBITE) (German) AALEN POLICE SPOKESMAN, KLAUS HINDERER, SAYING: "The status of the investigation right now is that the reported smell of heating oil or diesel probably originated from an oil tank inside this building. So it is too early to say whether it was arson." FIRE-FIGHTERS NEAR SMOULDERING HOUSE VARIOUS OF DIGGER WORKING ON SMOULDERING HOUSE
  • Embargoed: 8th September 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Germany
  • Country: Germany
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVAEE8HW53VNA83D0NV9BQCXQWVK
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel condemned on Monday (August 24) violent protests against refugees that erupted over the weekend in the east of Germany, blaming them on "un-German" far-right extremists.
    More than 30 police were injured in clashes in Heidenau near Dresden on early Saturday morning, after a mob of several hundred people, many of them drunk, began pelting officers with bottles and fireworks. Some of them shouted "Heil Hitler".
    Gabriel called for a European response to the migrant crisis on a visit to Heidenau.
    "Europe will not fail with the euro or the financial issues of Greece but it is facing huge problems and great setbacks if we don't succeed in dealing with the refugee issue adequately and fairly. This includes no longer turning a blind eye to it and a fair distribution of the refugees across Europe," he said, before launching a condemnation of those who had taken part in the violent anti-refugee protests.
    "These people (right-wing militants) have nothing to do with Germany. This is not the type of Germany we want to have in our country. They think they are the representatives of the true Germany. In reality, they are the most un-German people I can imagine," Gabriel told reporters.
    Germany, which expects the number of asylum seekers to quadruple to about 800,000 this year, has witnessed dozens of arson attacks on asylum shelters in recent months. But the violence in Heidenau, which continued on Saturday and Sunday nights, was unprecedented.
    Gabriel travelled to the town of 16,000 on Monday, meeting with the mayor and speaking with local residents.
    Heidenau is located in an electoral district where the far-right National Democratic Party (NPD) won 8.7 percent of the vote in a state election last year. It was the third-highest NPD score in all of Saxony, an eastern state of 4 million that shares a border with Poland and the Czech Republic.
    In the western town of Weissach, north of Stuttgart, an overnight fire destroyed a house earmarked to house refugees from this coming December.
    "The status of the investigation right now is that the reported smell of heating oil or diesel probably originated from an oil tank inside this building. So it is too early to say whether it was arson," Aalen police spokesman Klaus Hinderer said.
    Many politicians have warned about a rise in hostility towards foreigners and in the first half of the year alone, some 150 arson or other attacks were recorded on refugee shelters.
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