German police say political failure fuels New Year danger

German police, health officials and environmental groups have called for new measures to be taken — including a total ban on fireworks — ahead of New Year's Eve celebrations on Sunday.

Germany's laid-back approach to firework safety, which leads to scenes of apparent chaos as people set off millions of euros worth of festive mini-explosions in public streets throughout the country, has long shocked many visitors to the country.

However, the increasing number of street fights and injuries may have become too much for even the Germans.

What the police union said

"Ever since the excessive violence last year in Berlin, but also in many places in the Ruhr district and even in the usually peaceful city of Bonn, we've known that something has gone wrong in our society," Jochen Kopelke, head of the main German police union GdP, told the Rheinische Post newspaper in comments published on Thursday.

"We must finally do something about it," he added.

Setting off fireworks in the middle of the street has long been the New Year's Eve tradition in Germany, but scenes from Berlin last year have led to calls for a rethink.

Police described fireworks being directed at emergency services, with personnel in some cases allegedly lured into traps.

Kopelke warned that "attacks" against emergency service workers and other people celebrating the new year were expected again this year.

Police are preparing a "massive deployment of personnel" to prevent the outbreaks of violence.

But Kopelke went further, posing an open question in the Rheinische Post: "Why aren't the police finally given the legal means to take the necessary action against those taking part in the violent excesses? And why haven't we already implemented a sale ban on fireworks?", and pointing out that such a ban exists for the rest of the year.

The sentiment was mirrored by the head of the German Fire Brigade Association (DFV), Karl-Heinz Banse.

"The state must make sure that those who [attack emergency service workers] are punished to the full extent of the law. This is still missing," he told the German news agency DPA.

'We need a ban now'

The head of the non-profit organization Environmental Action Germany (DUH), Jürgen Resch, also called for a ban on the sale of fireworks in comments made to the Rheinische Post.

"We need an end to the gunpowder of New Year's Eve fireworks, and we need it now," he said, pointing to the attacks on emergency workers as well as the impacts on pets and wild birds.

He said that authorities had refused to speak with the DUH about a possible ban — one that he said was supported by a majority of German citizens —, adding that Interior Minister Nancy Faeser had just days to impose such a ban.

"If not, then she is responsible for all the violence, the burning of houses and apartments, the air pollution and the many thousands of injured people," Resch told the paper.

Klaus Reinhardt, head of the German Medical Association, also spoke to the Rheinische Post, highlighting not only the additional load on the already-full clinic and emergency rooms, but also warning that the unbridled letting off of fireworks could trigger trauma responses for those who have fled war.

Nobody wants to stop New Year's Eve celebrations, Reinhardt said, but "uncontrolled explosions" are not a necessary part of it.

ab/rc (AFP, dpa, EPD)

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