Germany: Police raid left-wing extremist scene in Leipzig
Police in the German federal state of Saxony on Wednesday raided the apartments of several left-wing extremists in the Connewitz district of Leipzig.
Tom Bernhardt, the spokesman for the State Criminal Police Office (LKA), said that the sweeps were carried out by “SoKo LinX” of the Police Terrorism and Extremist Defense Center, and were connected to left-wing extremism, Die Welt reports.
In total, police searched nine apartments that were occupied by individuals from the left-wing extremist scene who are suspected of having committed crimes which involved, among other things, violence against people and property. The Connewitz district in Leipzig is widely known as one of Germany’s most notable far-left strongholds, with approximately 250 violent left-wing extremists.
Last winter, following a dramatic uptick in violent attacks committed by left-wing extremists, the eastern German state of Saxony announced the establishment of a Special Commission on left-wing extremism (Soko LinX).
In November of last year, Voice of Europe reported that there had been 305 left-wing attacks recorded, compared to 222 in 2018.
In one of those attacks, which took place in Leipzig in November, Antifa extremists invaded the apartment of a real estate agent and beat her as a part of their so-called war against the development of luxury apartments in Leipzig, as previously reported by Voice of Europe.
Just a month before that, Voice of Europe reported that individuals from the same left-wing extremist scene in Leipzig set two cranes ablaze at a construction site run by the same real-estate development company, causing around ten million euros in damage. The group also burned several excavators at several construction sites in the city during the same month.
https://voiceofeurope.com/2020/06/germany-police-raid-left-wing-extremist-scene-in-leipzig/