‘Cologne protests caused by government’s ignorance of migration and Islamism problems’

The Cologne protests indicate a growing number of people are not willing to accept the German policy of supporting violent extremism in Syria, and ignoring the problems of mass migration and Islamism, journalist Manuel Ochenreiter told RT.

RT:Why have these protests been held in Cologne in particular?

Journalist Jan Raudszus on Cologne protests: “Those protests started out as hooligans against Salafists but then you hear people shouting “We don’t want any foreigners” and stuff like that, like a very skewed typical normal neo-Nazi behavior that we have seen in the past.”

Manuel Ochenreiter: It’s an interesting development, we face such protests… For example, we had clashes between Kurds and Islamists in some German cities with a lot of injured people, also injured policemen. The problem of mass migration, the problem of Islamism seems to be ignored by established mainstream politics and more and more people ask questions where the answers don’t seem to come. We face this violence…and I’m worried that we will face such scenes much more in the future as long as there will be no solution to those problems.

READ MORE:‘Hooligans against Salafists’: Violence erupts at huge far-right rally in Cologne

RT:Most of the people who marched the streets were far-right activists and self-proclaimed “soccer hooligans.” Does this discontent spread beyond these small groups?

Editor-in-chief of Geheim magazine Michael Opperskalski on Cologne protests: “The internal Intelligence service of Germany is extremely hypocritical, even in their statements, because they created problems in order to develop an uprising against a democratic elected government in Syria of Bashar Assad, and now this problem is coming back to Germany”.

MO: These were not just far-right protests. These were also football hooligans that are hooligans who were not political at all before. It was a mix of people, among them of course far-right protesters. But in the end these were a couple of thousands of people protesting in Cologne in clashes with police, were showing that among those protesters there were also a lot of violent people. Of course we cannot say that they represent the majority of the people. But the problem of Islamism, the problem of violence, also a problem that Germany is a country which supports violent Islamism, for example, in Syria by promoting, funding and supporting the so-called rebel factions which are nothing else [but] violent Islamist extremists, shows that more and more people are not confident with the politics. Normal people are not going on the street and beating the policemen, not protesting. It shows an atmosphere, a sort of sentiment that an increasing number of people are not willing to accept this politics anymore. And politicians are now asked to find a solution, but they seem to have been ignoring all those problems for many years. The ignorance of those problems causes this violence, blood, injured policemen and injured civilians on German streets.

The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.