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| Police use pepper spray against supporters of anti-immigration PEGIDA [Wolfgang Rattay/Reuters] |
Competing protests have been
held in Cologne, Germany in response to the series of violent assaults
against women on New Year's Eve.
About 450 supporters of the anti-Islam PEGIDA movement were facing
off with 1,300 counter-demonstrators behind the city's main train station on
Saturday, police said, according to Aljazeera.
After bottles and firecrackers were hurled at officials, police
cancelled the march by the far-right groups, a spokeswoman said. Police
used water canon to disperse protesters.
The attacks on New Year’s Eve caused tensions in Germany because
the victims described the offenders as "foreigners" and
"migrants", of which the country has accepted about 1.1 million this
year - more than any other European nation.
Cologne’s federal police have said they
received 170 criminal complaints connected to the New Year's festivities,
including 120 cases of sexual assaults.
The German government said 31 suspects were briefly detained for
questioning. Eighteen of them were asylum seekers.
The detained included nine Algerians, eight Moroccans, five
Iranians, four Syrians, two Germans and one person each from Iraq, Serbia and
the US.
The left-wing demonstrators, who protested
against PEGIDA, clearly outnumbered the right-wing protesters, told Aljazeera.
Police sources estimated that the left-wing demonstration was about
four to five times as big as the right-wing march.
“This shows the difference of opinion in the refugee debate that has
been going on in Germany,” said Aljazeera reporter.
Tougher laws
German chancellor, Angela Merkel, has proposed tougher laws which
include expelling asylum seekers convicted of committing crimes in Germany, in
response to the assaults.
Merkel's party, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), discussed
on Saturday deportation for asylum seekers who commit crimes as an important facet of their new 10-point plan
for the nation's future.
At the two-day summit in Mainz
the CDU discussed if asylum seekers should be expelled sooner. On
Saturday, the party confirmed their plans.
"What happened on New Year's
Eve are despicable criminal acts that demand decisive answers," Merkel
said after a meeting among the top ranks of her CDU in Mainz.
"The right to asylum can be
lost if someone is convicted on probation or jailed," Merkel added.
The police chief of of Cologne was dismissed on Friday amid mounting criticism
of his force's handling of New Year's Eve sexual assaults and robberies.
