Violent riots broke out in Stuttgart over an Eritrean festival. Opponents of the event on Saturday attacked the participants and the police on duty. At least 50 were injured, and more than 200 suspects are under investigation for assault and hooliganism.

Demonstrators were attacked with “stones, bottles, metal rods and wooden rails,” police spokesman Timo Brenner said at a press conference on Sunday, according to Tagesschau.de. 27 police officers were injured, seven of whom are currently unfit for duty, 21 injured among the attackers and four among the participants of the event, Brenner also reported.

According to police, opponents of the event first gathered without warning in the area of ​​Stuttgart’s main train station and Bad Cannstadt train station on Saturday morning. Several of them then attacked the participants and the police at the Römerkastell, where the event was taking place.

As a result, the police used batons, pepper spray, and then called for reinforcements. The cavalry squadron of the police also sprung into action, and a helicopter circled over Stuttgart for hours. Residents were asked to stay at home.

Politicians want violent action

Politicians are calling for action following this new unrest over a festival in Eritrea. The main tone is that the state should show force and, if necessary, prohibit such measures.

Federal Interior Minister Nancy Feser and other politicians strongly condemned Saturday’s riots in Stuttgart. “Foreign conflicts should not be resolved by violence in our country,” said the SPD politician, adding that the guilty should be brought to justice.

The Prime Minister of Baden-Württemberg, Winfried Kretschmann, sharply criticized the acts of violence in his state. “Images of violent riots with attacks on police are disturbing and completely unacceptable,” the Greens politician said. The importation of conflicts from other countries, which will be transferred by violence, to Germany will not be allowed. Such a development will be opposed “with all severity,” Kretschmann also said.

The country’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior Thomas Strobl (CDU) added that the constitutional state will not sit aside and accept the uprising of violent Eritrean groups, being “absolutely unacceptable that these intra-African conflicts are taking place with violent methods in our streets. Such crimes are associated with a violation of public order, so violent criminals must now feel the full severity of criminal and immigration laws,” Strobl said.

Export of political conflict

This is not the first Eritrean cultural event held in Germany that ended badly. 26 injured officers and 125 reported crimes were recorded in the police report following the Eritrean Festival in Giessen in July 2023.

After violent protests last summer, the city of Giessen wanted to ban a new festival in July, but the courts saw no legal basis for this.

And there was a “massive fight” in Frankfurt. Violence between supporters and opponents of the Eritrean government continues to rise in the German state of Hesse.

Eritrea may be far away, but the conflict between regime supporters in Asmer and representatives of the opposition is not. And it also goes to someone else’s territory, to a country that offers them asylum.