Violent riots broke out in Stuttgart over the Eritrean Festival. Opponents of the event attacked the participants and the police on duty on Saturday. At least 50 were injured and more than 200 suspects are being investigated for assault and disorderly conduct.
Violence at the Eritrea Festival in StuttgartPhoto: Jason Tschepljakow / DPA / Profimedia
The demonstrators attacked “with stones, bottles, metal rods and wooden slats”, said the police spokesman, Timo Brenner, at the press conference on Sunday, according to Tagesschau.de. 27 police officers were injured, seven of whom are now unfit for duty. There were 21 injured among the attackers and four among the participants in the event, Brenner also said.
According to police, opponents of the event initially gathered, unannounced, in the area of Stuttgart’s main train station and Bad Cannstatt train station on Saturday morning. Several of them then attacked the participants and police officers at Römerkastell, where the event was taking place.
As a result, the police used batons, pepper spray and then called for reinforcements. The police cavalry squadron also swung into action and a helicopter circled over Stuttgart for hours. Residents were asked to stay in their homes.
Politicians want forceful action
After these new riots over a festival in Eritrea, politicians are calling for action. The major tone is that the state must show force and, if necessary, prohibit such events.
Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser and other politicians strongly condemned Saturday’s riots in Stuttgart. “Foreign conflicts should not be fought with violence in our country,” the SPD politician said, adding that the perpetrators must be held accountable.
The Prime Minister of Baden-Württemberg, Winfried Kretschmann, strongly criticized the acts of violence in his state. “The images of brutal riots with attacks targeting the police are disturbing and completely unacceptable,” the Greens politician said. The importation of conflicts from other countries, to be translated by violence, into Germany will not be tolerated. Such developments will be countered “with all severity”, Kretschmann also said.
The country’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior, Thomas Strobl (CDU), added that the constitutional state will not stand idly by and accept the uprisings of violent Eritrean groups, being “absolutely unacceptable that these intra-African conflicts take place violently in the streets our. Such crimes involve a breach of the peace, so violent perpetrators must now feel the full severity of criminal and immigration law,” Strobl said.
The export of political conflict
This is not the first Eritrean cultural event held in Germany to end badly. 26 injured officers and 125 criminal complaints were recorded in the police report after the Eritrea Festival in Giessen in July 2023.
After last summer’s violent protests, the city of Giessen wanted to ban the new edition of the festival in July – but the courts saw no legal basis for this.
And in Frankfurt there was “a mass brawl.” Violence continues to rise in the German state of Hessa between supporters and opponents of the Eritrean government.
Eritrea may be far away, but the conflict between Asmara regime supporters and members of the opposition is not. And this also goes to foreign territory, to the country that offers them refuge.
