German City Accused of Funding Left Wing Extremists

Taxpayer money in the German city of Halle is being used to renovate a building in which left wing extremists have been squatting for years, anti-mass migration NGO Einprozent has claimed.

In 2001 members of far-left groups like Anti-Fascist Action, or Antifa, and others began squatting in “Reil 78”, a former children’s home, in the city of Halle, Saxony-Anhalt. The government of Halle is now looking at spending €150,000 of taxpayer money to renovate the electrical system in the building, the non-governmental organisation (NGO) claims on their website.

According to Einprozent, the squatters have ties to radical, far-left groups who incite violence and cause property damage. Shortly after beginning the squat, the group formed a company called “Kubultuburebel e.V.” in an attempt to have an official platform from which to talk to the city council.

This is not the first time the left-wing extremists have received money from the German state. Shortly after they began their squat in June of 2001, they were given €23,011.83 under the CIVITAS programme between October 1st and December 31st. The funds were dispersed to allegedly combat anti-Semitism in Saxony-Anhalt, according to records of the German parliament from 2006.

Neighbouring residents of the squatters, according to Einprozent, are not happy with the constant noise and rowdiness which occurs at the many concerts held on the property, often advertised on the Facebook page of the group.  The city council in Halle claim to have received few complaints about the squatters.

There have been some opponents to Kubultuburebel e.V. within the city council. The conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU), the party of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, has protested against the extremists’ use of the building and the left-wing controlled city council investing money into it.

Einprozent (“one per cent”) has called on residents to question the city council over the funding and to protest the decision. The NGO states its purpose is to mobilise one per cent of the German population against mass migration and is supported by many major figures of the populist right including Alternative for Germany (AfD) MP and Islamic scholar Dr. Hans-Thomas Tillschneider, Compact magazine founder Jürgen Elsässer, and publisher Götz Kubitschek.

The composition of the tenants of the house bears similarity to the Riga 94 squat in Berlin, which police attempted to clear because the owner wanted to convert the building into a migrant home. The reaction to the eviction by the leftist extremists was to torch cars in the area and smash up nearby shops. Recently, several members of the group were arrested by police in connection to the violence which occurred over the summer.

German police have expressed concern over the growing level of violence by left-wing extremists, like Antifa, after repeated incidents of violence and arson toward citizens and right-wing politicians.  Targets of the extremists have included the anti-mass migration AfD party and even the police.

After publishing the home addresses of members of the AfD online, left-wing activists are believed to have vandalised members’ homes, to have torched the car of leader Frauke Petry, and even violently assaulted party members in broad daylight.

UK police are also concerned about the rise of left-wing extremism with Brighton Police Chief Superintendent Nev Kemp saying the extremists were “some of the most intolerant people you could come across”. During a protest in June, Mr. Kemp said, “they were determined to cause damage and attack anybody really, any man with a bald head who looked like he might be from the right-wing”.