Nancy Faeser wants criminal laws to be tightened after New Year’s riots

Anyone who lures police officers into an ambush will soon be punished more severely. Apparently, this is a draft for tightening criminal law.

After the riots on New Year’s Eve, according to a media report, criminal law is now to be tightened. According to information from the “Bild am Sonntag” on Friday, the Federal Ministry of the Interior (BMI) asked in a letter to the coalition factions in the German Bundestag to examine a tightening of criminal law. Accordingly, Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) proposes that the targeted lure of police and rescue workers into an ambush should in future be punished with a minimum prison sentence of one year in prison instead of the previous six months.

According to the newspaper report, the letter goes on to say that the development of increasingly brutal violence against police and rescue workers underscores the need for a clear legal-political signal. This must clearly emphasize the particular reprehensibility of these acts and punish them in a qualified manner.

A look at other countries such as France shows that this development, “if it is not resolutely counteracted, could worsen further in a progressive brutalization,” the newspaper reports from the ministry letter.

After the New Year’s Eve riots, Faeser initially did not agree with the demands for tightening of penalties. On the other hand, she called for more consistent use of existing punishment options when convicting perpetrators.

On New Year’s Eve, emergency and rescue services in Berlin and other cities were massively attacked. In some cases, the police had to be deployed to protect firefighters from attacks while they were putting out fires.