Neo-Nazis, Leftists Clash at Rallies in Germany

Neo-Nazis rallied here Monday for the first time since Berlin was restored as the German capital last year, provoking clashes with radical leftists and transforming a holiday meant to celebrate work and good weather into a massive police operation to protect the political fringe.

At least 400 demonstrators were arrested in Berlin, Hamburg and Dresden, where May Day rallies staged by the neo-Nazi National Democratic Party incited militant leftists to take to the streets in angry counter-protests.

With 6,400 police officers and border guards deployed in Berlin to keep watch over the volatile demonstrations, security personnel far outnumbered protesters.

Fewer than 800 NDP members turned out for the rally in the eastern district of Hellersdorf, despite a court order Saturday overturning a city decision to prohibit the march on security grounds. Their shouts of “Jobs for Germans first!” and “Germany for us Germans!” were drowned out by the shrill whistles blown by the leftists and their answering cries of “Nazis out!”

Police, who numbered about 2,500 at the event, arrested 180 left-wing extremists and neo-Nazis. The neo-Nazis had broken through police lines to provoke the leftists, resulting in a brief clash.

Security forces posted in Hellersdorf also intercepted and arrested 140 leftist radicals who had arrived from an early-morning riot in Hamburg armed and looking for trouble at the neo-Nazi rally, police said.

Arrests also were made in Hamburg and in Dresden and some eastern German towns.

“Our de-escalation concept has proved itself,” Berlin Police Chief Hagen Saberschinsky said, referring to the squad’s policy of preventing fights among the radicals by letting them have their say while overwhelming their numbers.

While the noisy demonstrations in Berlin captured more attention, traditional labor rallies drew thousands of workers across the country. The biggest was in Hanover, where Dieter Schulte, chief of the German Assn. of Trade Unions, demanded more government investment in new jobs. Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder attended that rally, marking the first time that a German leader has taken part in a May Day event since 1982.

Schroeder also praised the Hellersdorf community for providing “a courageous example” of defusing confrontations.

Skirmishes disrupted May Day rallies and marches elsewhere in Europe, including a demonstration by a group of “guerrilla gardeners” who dug up a public lawn at London’s Houses of Parliament in a protest against capitalism. Three of the protesters were later arrested after about 20 masked men broke the windows of a McDonald’s restaurant and smashed its interior.

France’s far-right National Front, led by Jean-Marie Le Pen, staged its own rally against immigration and globalization, with several thousand people marching to a statue of Joan of Arc in central Paris. National Front organizers said 16,000 demonstrators took part, but police put the figure closer to 3,000. As in Berlin and London, the heavy police presence deterred violence.

In formerly Communist Eastern Europe, where labor was once celebrated as mankind’s greatest achievement, rallies and marches drew huge crowds in Moscow and Sofia, Bulgaria, from among the masses disgruntled by the slow pace of reform.

The neo-Nazis in Hellersdorf ranted against immigration and unemployment, but there were few bystanders around to hear them. Likewise, streets were all but deserted, except for police, in the wealthy Friedrichstrasse shopping district and along a route through the heavily immigrant district of Kreuzberg traveled by a far-left march. Most Berliners had taken to the countryside for the three-day weekend, leaving the city all but empty except for the extremists.

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MAY DAY PROTESTS

Demonstrators clash with police in several U.S. cities. A19