New Year Clashes in Germany Spark Political Debate Over Fireworks

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New Year Clashes in Germany Spark Political Debate Over Fireworks
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New Year's Eve celebrations in Germany turned violent, with clashes between police and revelers resulting in five deaths and dozens of injuries. The incidents have reignited a debate about the use of powerful fireworks, prompting calls for stricter regulations.

New Year clashes between police and revellers in Berlin and other cities have sparked political ructions after fireworks accidents left five dead and dozens injured, increasing tensions a few weeks before Germany ’s election. The violence has revived a debate over whether to prohibit the private use of powerful pyrotechnic devices during New Year celebrations, a German tradition that has grown in popularity since the pandemic and has led to many casualties and material damage in recent years.

The incidents have renewed calls from police and health officials for stricter curbs on the public use of Kugelbomben or “bullet-bomb” fireworks, many of which are homemade. As voters prepare to go to the polls in an early federal election on February 23, the fallout from New Year has added tension to a campaign that has been dominated by the themes of law and order. Germany is still reeling from an attack last month in the eastern town of Magdeburg, where a Saudi Arabian national drove through a crowd at a Christmas market, killing five and injuring dozens of people. Nancy Faeser, Germany’s Social Democratic interior minister, vowed to impose tougher sanctions on those deliberately targeting police officers or other civil servants. She favoured prison sentences of up to five years, she told the Bild newspaper on Thursday. Volker Wissing, justice minister, said the criminal code “already offers the possibility of severely punishing attacks like the ones we saw on New Year’s Eve”. However, the perpetrators must “quickly feel the severity of the law”, he told Bild. Traditional street firework celebrations that began late on Wednesday turned particularly disruptive after groups of young partygoers set off pyrotechnic rockets, some targeting police officers and damaging buildings. Police arrested more than 400 people in Berlin, where clashes left 30 officers and one firefighter injured and 36 flats damaged, according to local authoritie

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