On New Year’s Eve, the notorious Leipzig Antifa rioted once again. They used rocks, bottles, and a burning shopping cart as weapons against law enforcement. One officer was seriously injured and required stitches for a head injury. The attack on this officer is being investigated as an act of attempted murder because Antifa rioters removed his helmet. Police say this is clear evidence of an attempt to inflict lethal injuries.

The Interior Minister of Saxony, Roland Wöller, accused Antifa of “deliberate and targeted attacks on human life.” Rainer Wendt, national chairman of the German Police Trade Union, said the violence was reminiscent of Red Army Faction terrorism in the 1970s. Yet days later, left-wing politicians and media were playing interference for Antifa. They accused the police of exaggerating. Juliana Nagel, a local leader of Die Linke, the former East German Communist Party, went even further. She called the Antifa rioters victims of “disgusting police violence.”

One Antifa, arrested for attacking police on New Year’s Eve, has already been left off with community service. Some Germans call this “kuschel-urteil,” or “cuddle justice.” Antifa criminals are often protected against any real repercussions in the big cities.

In 2019, Antifa in Leipzig caused several million Euro in arson damage, along with beatings, riots, organized squatting, and at least one home invasion. Now, the state police in Saxony [LKA] have labeled the notorious Connewitz area of Leipzig as a national hotspot of politically motivated crimes by the left. The report says that the “left-wing autonomous scene” in Connewitz has reached the “threshold of terrorism.” Hundreds of individual crimes attributed to Leipzig Antifa were documented last year. In fact, the LKA already began offering huge rewards for information leading to the arrest of the worst Antifa criminals last year.

It remains to be seen if anything is really done. The CDU Prime Minister of Saxony recently made a dramatic pivot to the left. In order to keep the conservative Alternative fur Deutschland [AfD] out of power, he agreed to a deal with the Green party. He placed pro-Antifa professional street activist Katja Meier in charge of the Ministry of Justice. She once played the bass guitar for an Antifa punk rock band and has maintained ties with Antifa ever since. She has never held a job in the court system and has only been employed as a professional activist and Green party politician for her entire adult life.