Has Civil War Begun In Europe? Citizens Battle Asylum Seekers in Bautzen, Germany

From the BBC:

“Residents have clashed with asylum seekers in a town in eastern Germany that has become a flashpoint for anti-refugee sentiment. Some 80 men and women, many described as far-right, fought with 20 migrants and refugees in Bautzen. 

The asylum seekers were chased to their hostel and put under police guard. Anti-migrant tensions have been mounting in Bautzen this year. Locals cheered when a building due to house migrants was set on fire in February. 

The following month, President Joachim Gauck was verbally abused when he visited Bautzen to discuss the influx of refugees in Germany. Bautzen and the nearby town of Niedergurig are home to four asylum shelters. 

Bautzen is 60km (38 miles) east of Dresden, where the “anti-Islamisation” Pegida movement began. Since the arrival last year of 1.1 million irregular migrants and refugees in Germany, some areas, particularly eastern states, have seen a rise in anti-migrant violence as well as support for the anti-Islam AfD party. 

Germany’s federal police force says there have been 700 attacks on asylum accommodation this year, including 57 arson attacks. Each fresh outbreak of refugee-related violence is potentially a political problem for Chancellor Angela Merkel. 

Some voters say large-scale migration could destabilise German society. As a result the chancellor’s conservative coalition has been haemorrhaging voters to the insurgent anti-migrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) party. 

That’s a particular worry given that this weekend voters in Berlin region go to the polls, and next year Mrs Merkel’s national government faces re-election. 

But many Germans from other parts of Germany are more likely to blame the clashes on racist sentiment rather than see it as a product of the chancellor’s welcoming stance on refugees. That is because this beautiful area of ex-communist eastern Germany already has a rather ugly reputation for neo-Nazi support and right-wing extremist violence. 

Wednesday’s outbreak of violence in Bautzen was a dramatic escalation of days of tensions in the town. The clashes appeared to be triggered by an incident the previous evening when a 32-year-old resident was hurt by a bottle being thrown. 

Residents on Wednesday accused asylum seekers of taking over a square outside the central Kornmarkt shopping centre before fighting broke out. 

Witnesses said when police asked the asylum seekers to leave, they responded by hurling bottles and wooden slats. When the asylum seekers began to disperse, they were pursued by a group of extremists. 

An ambulance crew was caught up in the clashes when far-right residents hurled stones at their vehicle as they tried to take an 18-year-old Moroccan asylum seeker to hospital for treatment. 

Local mayor Alexander Ahrens appealed for calm and said he would increase police patrols in the area so that residents could use the Kornmarkt again. 

“From the many reactions of Bautzen citizens, as well as from tourists and local businesspeople – I understood that the conditions in our public square have triggered serious anxiety and worries,” he wrote on his Facebook page.””

AND THEN THERE'S THIS:

Marion Le Pen: ‘Migrants are heading to rural France because EU-Turkey deal is FAILING

“THE niece of French far-right leader Marine Le Pen has said she fears migrants will be heading to rural France because the Turkey-EU refugee deal is FAILING. Front National MP, Marion Le Pen, blamed Brussels bureaucrats for “losing” out as the fate of the controversial migrant deal hangs in the balance. 

In angry Twitter rant, the far-right politician said: “The agreement with #Turkey for managing migrants is failing and the EU is losing. “They will distribute #migrants in the countryside, the situation is already problematic… #Calais #FranceInfo #MMLP” 

The party’s leader, Marine Le Pen, dealt a crippling blow to the failing EU this week when she promised she will hold a referendum to decide whether France remains in the crumbling bloc if she becomes president. 

Euroscepticism has swept across the nation following the escalating migrant crisis and a number of Islamist terror attacks on French soil linked to EU free movement rules. 

Bowing to pressure, Brussels bureaucrats launched a landmark deal with Turkey to stop illegal immigration to Europe via its shores, in return for a staggering £2.5billion, the promise of visa-free travel to much of the bloc plus accelerated talks on EU membership. 

But relations between the Brussels club and Ankara have soured since the failed military coup and the country’s stubborn refusal to back down on anti-terror laws. 

Turkey has repeatedly attempted to blackmail Brussels over the escalating migrant crisis by threatening to rip up an agreement to bring the refugee flow under control if it does not get its own way…”

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