| Just days into the summer vacation period and amid the heat wave hitting Europe, outbreaks of violence at outdoor swimming pools have been making the headlines in Germany.
In the capital, dozens of youths have been involved in brawls.
“It’s very often repeat offenders who terrorize bathers,” said Berlin Mayor Kai Wegner, promising to combat the emergence of “lawless zones.”
The municipal administration has begun to implement tough security measures: Visitors are required to buy personalized tickets in advance online and carry ID to enter, video surveillance has been set up, and protective fencing is being reinforced.
Wegner’s center-right Christian Democrats (CDU) came to power earlier this year, having campaigned not only on car- and business-friendly policies, but first and foremost on law and order in the wake of New Year’s Eve violence.
The CDU, which was in power for most of the past decades at the national level, is zooming in on security as it seeks to sharpen its profile and steal the far-right populist Alternative for Germany Party’s thunder.
So Carsten Linnemann, the party’s new designated secretary general, attempted to pin the events on immigrants, taking a hardline stance in his first interview with the weekend edition of mass-circulation tabloid Bild:
“Families who cannot afford a vacation or a pool in their own backyard have to watch young men, often with a migration background, become violent in the open-air swimming pool,” he said, demanding fast-track proceedings against perpetrators and prison sentences. “Anyone who attacks people in an open-air swimming pool at midday must sit before a judge that very evening and be sentenced,” said Linnemann, arguing that a strong rule of law only works with deterrence. |
