After the violent left-wing extremist riots last weekend in Leipzig, the interior committee of the Saxon state parliament dealt with the topic at a special session on Thursday.

At the demonstration on Saturday, the right of assembly and the city were "once again abused as a platform," said the CDU parliamentary group.

"Anyone who invites rioters from all over Germany need not be surprised in the end when they throw stones and attack the police," said Union domestic politician Rico Anton.

Stefan Locke

Correspondent for Saxony and Thuringia based in Dresden.

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The AfD parliamentary group accused the police and government of having "grandiose underestimated" the demonstration and called for the special commission against left-wing extremism to be increased to the same number as the commission against right-wing extremism.

The Greens, who govern Saxony in a coalition with the CDU and SPD, on the other hand, attested to the police that they “managed this complex situation with great professionalism”.

“And she intervened where it was necessary and necessary - especially after the meeting was over,” says the parliamentary group's internal political spokesman, Valentin Lippmann.

At the same time, he appealed to the interior minister to quickly clear up allegations of obstruction of the media by police representatives.

Last Saturday around 3500 people walked peacefully through Leipzig after a rally under the motto “We are all LinX”.

According to the police, pyrotechnics were burned off and firecrackers ignited after just a few hundred meters from the demonstration.

On the further way in the direction of the Connewitz district, in which left-wing extremists clash again and again, some demonstrators then set fire to firecrackers again and started throwing bags of paint on facades.

Seven injured police officers

Later on, police officers and their emergency vehicles were also thrown at. Seven emergency services suffered minor injuries. On a banner, participants threatened the head of the terrorism and extremism defense center of the Saxon police by name: "Soon it will be out of your dream, then you will be in the trunk." The police are investigating serious breaches of the peace, dangerous bodily harm, property damage and disturbance of the public peace Call for crime.

The reason for the demonstration, to which various groups had mobilized nationwide, was the alleged criminalization of anti-fascism by the police and the judiciary. The background to this is the trial that has been ongoing at the Dresden Higher Regional Court since mid-September against four alleged members of a left-wing extremist network, including the student Lina E., who comes from Kassel and lived in Leipzig until her arrest last November. The federal prosecutor accuses the woman in custody of being the head of the network that allegedly and actual right-wing extremists in Saxony and Thuringia are said to have attacked.

In the process, which has been considered one of the most important proceedings against the left-wing extremist scene for years, the evidence has so far been drawn out mainly through numerous tactical maneuvers by the defense.

A witness was heard for the first time on Wednesday.

A former Leipzig NPD city councilor, who has several criminal records, indirectly exonerated Lina E. by describing the attack on his person as an act by four men who attacked him with balaclavas and hit him on the head and knees.

He had multiple fractures.

The indictment, however, assumes that Lina E. is involved.