Riots on May 1st – for many years they have become a ritual of the radical left scene in Berlin.

At the same time, the trend towards violence has weakened in recent years.

The police strategy, which relies on de-escalation but still takes targeted action against violent offenders, has generally worked.

In addition, the so-called Revolutionary May Day demonstration in the district of Kreuzberg was most recently embedded in the "Myfest", where thousands of visitors felt like celebrating and not rioting.

Last year, the demonstration ended in the early evening with comparatively little violence.

About 20 police officers were slightly injured;

in 2009 there were 479 injured police officers.

Markus Wehner

Political correspondent in Berlin.

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The left-wing extremist scene is anything but happy with this development.

That's why she's giving up her demonstration at the "Ballermann-Fest" in Kreuzberg this year.

Instead, it is to take place in the neighboring district of Friedrichshain, which is classified as more combative.

There are Rigaer and Liebigstrasse, where there are squats, which have been the cause of serious disputes between the squatter scene and the police in recent years.

The left-wing extremists hope that they can exploit the current debate in Berlin about gentrification, a lack of living space and excessive rents in order to create the much-vaunted “connectivity” to mainstream society.

Class struggle is invoked online

The demonstration in Friedrichshain is to take place under the motto "Against the city of the rich!".

The poster calling for participation shows a guillotine.

It is not planned to actually use them, according to an interview with a scene member on an Internet site.

But "those up there" have to get their hands dirty.

"You have to expropriate them comprehensively and without compensation." Other calls circulating on the Internet also invoke the class struggle, among other things with reference to the violent protests in France that have been going on for weeks.

"Where the Yellow Vests movement can inspire us is in its awareness of a conflict with state and capital that cannot be met peacefully and passively," reads an appeal by Rigaer 94, a squatted housing project.

The demonstration in Friedrichshain, which is likely to follow a rally in the evening at Wismarplatz, was not registered because the scene does not want to negotiate with the police about the demonstration route.

Interior Senator Andreas Geisel (SPD) justified the decision not to ban the demonstration at a press conference on Monday.

The right to freedom of expression and demonstration is valuable.

Although he takes appropriate calls for the use of violence from the left scene "with concern," he said, "but we cannot assume that all participants will be violent."

Police chief Barbara Slowik, who appeared with Geisel, said that contact with the organizers would be sought in order to arrange a route with them.

Ultimately, the police chief will decide

how the demonstration should proceed.

The police will act consistently against violent criminals.

A total of 5,500 police officers from Berlin, other federal states and the federal police are on duty.

In view of the heated mood surrounding the issue of rent, the protests are expected to be “a different quality” than in previous years, according to the Berlin interior administration.

The discussion about the expropriation of real estate companies also contributed to this.

Since the beginning of April, signatures have been collected for a referendum aimed at expropriating real estate companies with more than 3,000 apartments.

A satirical demonstration wants to take the protest to the residential area of ​​the rich as early as noon on May 1st.

It takes place in the villa district of Grunewald.

The organizer is the action alliance “Hedonistic International”.

The demonstration took place for the first time last year.

At that time, the organizers had registered 200 participants.

But to the surprise of the police, 3,000 demonstrators had gathered in southwest Berlin.

At that time, there was 68 property damage, as Interior Senator Geisel announced, above all demonstrators had sprayed and pasted houses and cars with paint.

This time the police don't want to be taken by surprise again, according to Slowik they are expecting 2,000 participants.

A mobilization of the left-wing extremist scene for this demonstration was not observed.

The district of Kreuzberg wants to make the May celebrations smaller this year, as it has been almost overrun by thousands of party fans in recent years.

Görlitzer Park, where last year's "MaiGörli" festival was already crowded in the early evening, should remain completely party-free, "a normal day in the park" is planned, as Geisel said.

The "Myfest" will take place on Oranienstraße and the adjacent streets, but the number of stages has been limited to four in order to curb the party mood a bit.

Whether that will be successful will also depend on the weather.