Germany: NYE violence sparks debate about integration
The dramatic scenes of streets ablaze to the sound of gunfire from blank-firing pistols as fireworks, stones and bottles were hurled at the police and emergency service workers shocked many. For two years the sale of fireworks had been banned in an attempt to prevent large gatherings and curb the spread of the coronavirus. This year's New Year's Eve celebrations have again reignited the debate about a potential ban on the sale of fireworks.
Eyewitnesses among police and firefighters spoke of unprecedented violence against them, calling for better protection.
But the fact that the multi-national, ethnically diverse district of Neukölln in Berlin was one of the main hotspots for the violence — local police described the intensity of the violence there as far worse than in previous years — was quickly seized upon by politicians and commentators.
"[It's] more about unregulated migration, failed integration and a lack of respect for the state than fireworks," the former-Health Minister Jens Spahn of the center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU)said one day after the events.
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