Germany - Bus drivers, locals spoil neo-Nazi day out
Neo-Nazis planning to march through the town of Bad
Nenndorf had to set off on foot earlier than expected, after demonstrators
blocked their train – and at least one driver of the replacement bus service
refused to take them.
Around 700 people from the area gathered to show their
opposition to the march, while more than 200 left-wing activists chained
themselves to the station platform, delaying the arrival of the neo-Nazis’
train by more than an hour.
The bus drivers were less than cooperative, forcing many
of the neo-Nazis to walk into town. Their rally was several hours late and
accompanied by loud protests nearby.
Bad Nenndorf in Lower Saxony has been the focus of
neo-Nazi marches every year since 2006, because it was where the British army
set up an interrogation centre for Nazis after the war.
Jürgen Trittin, head of the Greens' parliamentary party,
spoke at an anti-Nazi rally there on Saturday, and said the protests were
trying to make victims out of the perpetrators, which he called a “grandiose
falsification of history.”
Sebastian Edathy of the Social Democratic Party (SPD)
said, "We are neither ready to hand over our streets and our squares, nor
the hearts and minds of the coming generation, to these enemies of
humanity."
He said far-right extremism was a reality in Germany but
should never be accepted as normal.
At least 2,000 police officers were in the town, while a
surveillance drone flew over the more than 450 neo-Nazis. Last year around 580
showed up while in 2010 the number was more than 1,000.
The neo-Nazis had planned to go to Hannover, around 35
kilometres away, after their march in Bad Nenndorf – but cancelled this
themselves, a police spokeswoman said. They are now planning a torch-lit march
through Hannover at a later date.
Several hundred left-wing demonstrators gathered in
Hannover in anticipation of the planned neo-Nazi march, and some clashed with
the police. Around 50 people were briefly held, but no arrests were reported.
Comments
Post a Comment