In the village of Grevesmühlen in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, riots broke out during a district council meeting at which a decision was made on setting up refugee accommodation.

A spokeswoman for the Wismar police told the FAZ that people had tried to force their way into the district council building, which had been secured by a chain of police officers. A group of around 700 people protested in front of the district council building.

Julian Staib

Political correspondent for northern Germany and Scandinavia based in Hamburg.

  • Follow I follow

According to press reports, several people managed to get into the building.

About 120 officers had to shield the members of the district council.

Container accommodation for 400 refugees

The majority of the protesters were "bourgeois people", but right-wing extremists and a few so-called "Reich citizens" were also involved, according to the police spokeswoman.

The police announced on Friday that two cases are now being investigated for violations of the Explosives Act and one each for serious trespassing and violation of the Assembly Act.

The number of suspects has not yet been clarified.

Witnesses would have to be interviewed and film material evaluated.

At the district council meeting on Thursday, it was decided to set up container accommodation for 400 refugees in Upahl near Grevesmühlen.

The first containers should be there from March.

Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania's interior minister Christian level sharply criticized the incident.

Freedom of expression and freedom of demonstration are central fundamental rights of a democracy.

"However, the fact that well-known right-wing radicals and right-wing extremists are trying to occupy these events for themselves is unacceptable," said the SPD politician in Schwerin.

"If this goes hand in hand with the disruption of demonstrations and the attempt to forcibly enter the meeting places of democratically elected municipal decision-making bodies, this is clearly anti-democratic," said level.

The events would be processed under criminal law.

Attacks and threats against elected officials are unacceptable and will be punished, said the interior minister.

Threats of vigilantism and hate speech against people "who come to us from war zones or because of persecution by dictatorial regimes to find protection" are equally "clearly hostile to the free-democratic basic order".

“Attack on the core of our democratic system”

The state chairwoman of the Greens in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Katharina Horn, said that refugees needed protection from war and persecution and that their safety had to be guaranteed.

"The hateful people before the district council meeting question exactly what should never be up for debate." The spokesman for the Green Youth in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Paul Benduhn, spoke of an "attack on the core of our democratic system".

The demonstration in Grevesmühlen shows once again how right-wing extremists are currently trying to incite hatred and attack democracy, said the Executive Vice President of the International Auschwitz Committee, Christoph Heubner, on Friday.

The images reminded him of the attempted storming of the Reichstag building or the attack on the Capitol in Washington.

The district administrator of the Northwest Mecklenburg district, Tino Schomann, also criticized the tumult, but at the same time showed understanding for the concerns of the residents.

"We will do everything we can to alleviate this and to solve any problems that arise with the temporary accommodation," said the CDU politician.

He sees the construction of the container village as an emergency solution.

"I make no secret of the fact that both the district council and we as the administration are not happy that we had to make this decision," he said.

However, the step was necessary because of the continuing high number of allocations.