German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere called for electronic surveillance of potential rioters Saturday in response to violent events during last week’s G20 summit in Hamburg.
Around 230 police officers were injured during clashes with left-wing extremists during the summit. Many Germans have expressed anger over the events, and de Maiziere now wants to restrict the movement of potential rioters by putting ankle tags on them.
“Rioters should not be allowed to even reach the demonstration spots in the first place,” de Maiziere said Saturday, according to Deutsche Welle.
Electronic monitoring is already used on German soccer hooligans. Forcing violent individuals to report to authorities is a “relatively mild” but “very affecting” measure, according to de Maiziere.
The riots in Hamburg have raised concern over the threat posed by left-wing extremists. Hans-Georg Maassen, chief of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, warned that 8,500 left-wing extremists in the country are prone to violence.
“We have in Germany a very strong left-wing extremist scene, made up of about 28,000 people, of whom 8,500 are prone to violence,” Maassen said Saturday, according to Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung.
Minister for Foreign Affairs Sigmar Gabriel compared violent protestors to neo-Nazis after the summit, calling the events an “orgy of brutality.”
“The offenders do not differ at all from neo-Nazis and their fire attacks,” Gabriel said in an op-ed in tabloid Bild am Sonntag.
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