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Police call for strict hooligan stadium ban

In order to stem a dramatic increase in hooliganism in Germany, the country's national police union (GdP) on Thursday appealed to a federal court to allow violent football fans to be banned from stadiums even if they don't have a criminal conviction.

Published: 29 October 2009 09:00 CET

Police call for strict hooligan stadium ban

Hooligans in Dresden. Photo: DPA

The measure is necessary for the prevention of violence at matches, GdP leader Konrad Freiberg told daily Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung on Thursday.

On Friday, the court will address the case of a Bayern Munich fan who was banned from German stadiums for two years, even though the criminal investigation against him was suspended for lack of evidence. The man denies taking part in rioting, but Freiberg said the ban was “acceptable” and within the rights of the stadium owner.

Football fan violence is on the rise in Germany, with thousands of police on duty each weekend to prevent only the worst incidences at all league levels, Freiberg told the paper. Police are now forced to travel to small towns that are hardly visible on maps, he added.

Hooligans are also specifically targeting police officers with stones, rubbish bins, tear gas and smoke grenades, he said.

Alcohol is almost always a factor in fan violence, Freiburg told the paper, emphasising earlier demands to reduce availability on regional trains used by fans.

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Suspect held in latest attack on German politicians

The German government condemned the “growing despicable attacks”, stressing that the “climate of intimidation, of violence” was something that could not be accepted.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz blasted the attacks against politicians as “outrageous and cowardly”, stressing that violence did not belong in a democratic debate.

Franziska Giffey was at a library on Tuesday afternoon when the suspect came up from behind her to slug her in the head and neck with a bag containing hard objects, police said.

Giffey, who is now Berlin state’s economy minister and a member of Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democratic Party (SPD), was treated in hospital for light injuries.

The detained suspect was previously known to investigators over “state security and hate crimes”, said police, adding that they were investigating the motive of the attack.

Prosecutors were also considering if the man should be sent to psychiatric care because of indications that he might be mentally ill.

Giffey said she was “feeling well after the initial scare”. But she was “concerned and shaken about a growing ‘free wild culture’ in which people who are engaging politically in our country are increasingly exposed to attacks that are supposedly justified and acceptable.

“We live in a free and democratic country, in which everyone can be free to express his or her opinions,” she wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

“But there is a clear line — and that is violence against people,” she added.

Berlin’s current mayor Kai Wegner said anyone who attacked politicians was “attacking our democracy.

“We will not tolerate this,” he added, vowing to examine “tougher sentences for attacks against politicians”.

Nazi salutes

A European member of parliament, also from the SPD, had to be hospitalised last week after four people attacked him as he put up EU election posters in the eastern city of Dresden.

Matthias Ecke, 41, needed an operation for serious injuries suffered in the attack, which Scholz denounced as a threat to democracy. Four suspects, aged between 17 and 18, are being investigated over the incident.

READ ALSO: Teenager turns self in after attack on German politician

All four are believed to have links to the far-right group known as “Elblandrevolte”, according to German media.

Dresden has been a hotspot for assaults against politicians, with another case reported on Tuesday.

S-Bahn in Dresden

An S-Bahn train drives through Dresden. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Robert Michael

A politician, identified by police only as a 47-year-old from the Green party, was threatened and spat on. She was putting up campaign posters for the European elections when a man came up, pushed her to the side and tore down two posters.

READ ALSO: Germany unveils new plan to fight far-right extremism

He insulted and threatened the politician, while a woman joined in and spat on the victim, police said. Officers arrested both suspects, police added, identifying them as a 34-year-old German man and a 24-year-old woman.

Both were in a group standing at the area and who had begun making the banned Hitler salute when the politician began putting up the posters.

According to provisional police figures, 2,790 crimes were committed against politicians in Germany in 2023, up from 1,806 the previous year. Nevertheless, that was down from the 2,840 recorded in 2021, when the last general elections were held.

By Hui Min Neo

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