Far-right protests in Germany expose cracks in government

People attend a demonstration in Chemnitz, eastern Germany, Friday, Sept.7, 2018, after several nationalist groups called for marches protesting the killing of a German man two weeks ago, allegedly by migrants from Syria and Iraq. less

Photo: Jens Meyer, AP

German national flags lean next to wall during a demonstration in Chemnitz, eastern Germany, Thursday, Sept.7, 2018, after several nationalist groups called for marches protesting the killing of a German man two weeks ago, allegedly by migrants from Syria and Iraq. less

Photo: Jens Meyer, AP

FILE - In this Saturday, Sept. 1, 2018 file photo, a protestor holds a poster with a photo of Angela Merkel with blood on her hands, reading 'Merkel must go" , in Chemnitz, eastern Germany, after several nationalist groups called for marches protesting the killing of a German man allegedly by migrants from Syria and Iraq. German authorities are preparing for another far-right rally in the eastern city of Chemnitz over the recent killing of a man that was blamed on migrants. About 1,000 people are expected to attend a demonstration on Friday, Sept. 7, 2018, far fewer number that attended a protest immediately after the fatal stabbing of Daniel Hillig on Aug. 26. less

Photo: Jens Meyer, AP

FILE - In this Tuesday, May 15, 2018 file photo, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, left, talks with German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer, right, during the first day of the budget 2018 debate at the parliament Bundestag at the Reichstag building in Berlin. Interior Minister Horst Seehofer has expressed sympathy for those who took to the streets after the killing, though not the violent protesters, while Angela Merkel's spy chief disputed her spokesman's characterization of the demonstrations. less

Photo: Markus Schreiber, AP

FILE - In this Wednesday, June 13, 2018 file photo photo, German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer, front, sits on the opposite of German German Chancellor Angela Merkel, center back ground, prior to the weekly cabinet meeting of the German government at the chancellery in Berlin. Interior Minister Horst Seehofer has expressed sympathy for those who took to the streets after the killing, though not the violent protesters, while Angela Merkel's spy chief disputed her spokesman's characterization of the demonstrations. less

Photo: Markus Schreiber, AP

Far-right protests in Germany expose cracks in government

BERLIN (AP) — More than 1,000 far-right supporters rallied Friday night over the fatal stabbing of a man in the eastern German city of Chemnitz, for which two recent migrants have been arrested and charged with manslaughter.

In a case that has exposed friction between Chancellor Angela Merkel and top security officials, the flag-waving crowd rallied under the motto "security for Chemnitz" and behind a banner proclaiming "we are the people."

The number marching was far smaller than the estimated 6,000 or so who assembled the day after the Aug. 26 stabbing of 35-year-old Daniel Hillig.

About 500 counter-protesters gathered nearby shouting slogans like "there's no right to Nazi propaganda," while another opposition protest featured an open-air performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony as a sign "against xenophobia, hate and violence."

Local media reported one far-right supporter was arrested after being identified as having given the stiff-armed Nazi salute at a previous rally, which is banned in Germany, but police headquarters said they had no details on the report.

Since the slaying of Hillig, the nationalist Alternative for Germany party, or AfD, has sought to mobilize support with its anti-migrant message. But after a brief bump, polling suggests little change.

An Iraqi citizen and a Syrian citizen have been arrested on manslaughter charges over Hillig's death, which has also put a renewed a focus on Merkel's welcoming migrant policies and revealed disagreements between her and top security officials.

Interior Minister Horst Seehofer expressed sympathy Thursday for the protesters who were provoked by the slaying.

"If I were not a minister, I'd have gone to the streets as a citizen," Seehofer said, quickly adding: "Naturally, not together with the radicals."

Seehofer, who heads the Bavarian sister party to Merkel's center-right Christian Democrats, has long been to the chancellor's right on immigration, but his rhetoric has toughened as polls show his party struggling ahead of an October state election.

He told the Rheinischen Post newspaper that voters were linking their concerns to the issue of migration, which he called "the mother of all political problems in this country."

Merkel responded in an interview with Germany TV network RTL late Thursday that she saw it differently.

"Migration presents us with challenges and here we have problems, but also successes," the chancellor said. Merkel added that she was working with Seehofer to solve those problems.

New questions emerged Friday when the head of the country's domestic spy agency, Hans-Georg Maassen, said he was skeptical that far-right protesters in Chemnitz had "hunted" foreigners down in the days after the killing.

Merkel's spokesman, Steffen Seibert, described mobs going after people who appeared foreign. Maassen told Bild newspaper his agency had "no reliable information about such hunts taking place."

When asked about Maassen's comments, Seibert said the spy chief did not speak with Merkel before the Bild interview and that he had nothing to add to his own remarks about the Chemnitz protests.

Merkel has said images from the demonstration immediately after the killing "very clearly" showed hate. Authorities in Chemnitz reported several foreigners were injured in the protests following the killing.

The Dresden state prosecutor's office, which is handling the investigation, said Friday that video evidence from the scene showed "a multitude of crimes," including disturbing the peace, bodily harm and the public display of banned Nazi symbols or salutes.

"At the moment we have 120 cases from the 26th and 27th of August," spokesman Wolfgang Klein told Germany's dpa news agency.

He backed Maassen, however, saying that so far they have "no evidence of a so-called hunt" in which victims were pursued through the streets and beaten.