Among the tourists and commuters around Cologne’s main railway station there is the frequent fluorescent flash of a police uniform.
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Thousands of people gathered in the German city of Leipzig late Monday night to take part in rallies both supporting the right-wing Legida group and protesting it as tensions continue to run high over the influx of refugees and the New Year’s Eve sexual assaults in Cologne, German newspaper Deutsche Welle reported.
Germany has outlined plans to tighten deportation laws for foreigners in the wake of the series of attacks on hundreds of women in Cologne and other cities on New Year’s Eve.
Cologne authorities have recorded over 500 complaints related to the alleged mass sexual assaults, when groups of men roamed crowds and groped women.
Police say most of the suspects in Cologne are believed to be foreigners, including at least some asylum seekers.
She said Germans know that since the awful events of that night in Cologne, for integration to work, society needs to be open; but, she said, the refugees also need to be willing to follow the country’s rules and values. Chancellor Angela Merkel said Europe is at risk because the refugee crisis isn’t under control and promised quick action to speed up the expulsion of asylum seekers who commit crimes in Germany.
The incidents, ranging from theft to sexual molestation, have kicked off a highly charged debate in Germany about Chancellor Angela Merkel’s welcoming policy on refugees and migrants, more than one million of whom entered the country past year. But in recent months, she has vowed to “measurably reduce” arrivals and promised to give the authorities more powers to crack down on migrants who commit crimes.
Justice Minister Heiko Maas, who announced the plans alongside de Maiziere, said that public pressure following the Cologne assaults had played a role in getting the plan agreed so quickly.
Maas, the justice minister, said there would certainly be more deportation orders as a result of changes to the law “because we are lowering the requirements for a deportation”. Many were described as being of “Arab or North African origin”. “For the crimes I mentioned, that is life-threatening crimes, crimes against bodily harm, sexual self-determination, property offences using violence or serial offences against property or attacks against police, we are lowering the hurdle from three (years) to one year”.
While the rally stayed peaceful, police said some 250 far-right hooligans had thrown rocks and smashed shop windows in a traditionally left-wing student district of the city, before police dispersed them.
Security staff check people’s identification at Kastrups train station outside Copenhagen, January 4, 2016. “That would have a different quality for me”.
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“We must nonetheless protect women better from sexualized violence”, he said in a statement.
