After the large-scale operation on May 1, the Berlin police spoke of an “amazingly peaceful” course of the traditionally riot-prone demonstrations. “There are indications that it was the most peaceful May since 1987,” said a police spokesman just before midnight last night.
According to the control center, there were no significant incidents until the early morning. Police reported nine arrests at the traditional May Day demonstration of leftist and left-wing extremist groups. According to previous knowledge, a police officer was injured, the spokesman said.
New Senate deals with deployment
Today, the May Day mission is to be a topic in the new Berlin Senate. The new Governing Mayor Kai Wegner (CDU) and Interior Senator Iris Spranger (SPD) want to present an evaluation at the Senate press conference.
Berlin’s chief of police, Barbara Slowik, drew a positive balance yesterday evening after the end of the May demonstration. The protest march was “largely peaceful”,” she told RBB. At the beginning of the meeting, some anti-Semitic crimes were registered, the chief of police reported. The state security agency responsible for politically motivated crimes at the State Criminal Police Office (LKA) took over the investigation.
According to the police, around 12,000 people took part in the “Revolutionary May Day Demonstration”. The organizers spoke of around 20,000 participants. The demonstration ended earlier than expected that evening. The organizer ended the meeting with reference to the police presence, said a police spokeswoman. The demo was originally supposed to go as far as Oranienplatz.
Standstill at the top of the demo
The demonstration train arrived relatively early at the controversial new police station at Kottbusser Tor in Kreuzberg. The police had protected the area around the high-rise building on Adalbertstraße with bars and many police officers. When the head of the train arrived at Oranienstrasse, there was a standstill. According to dpa reporters, there was a crowd among the demonstrators and displeasure that people could not get out of the crowd.
After the traditional demonstration ended prematurely, thousands of people continued to roam the surrounding streets. Reporters from the dpa sometimes described the atmosphere as aggressive, and there were occasional scuffles. The police showed a strong presence and quickly brought many emergency services together. According to her own statements, she was at the top with 6300 emergency services yesterday.
