Klagenfurt – thousands of fans celebrated in Klagenfurt, until the early hours of the morning, the victory of a German team in the first game of the European championship. But that’s not the subject we’re concerned with. When the match ended there have been riots that should not occur in a soccer game. The superintendent of the Kärnten police, Wolfgang Rauchegger, could not explain what had happened. “We still have no clue how they managed to enter the country”.
He’s referring to a group of 160 Germans who shouted antisemitic calls outside the field. A group of neo-nazis shouted racist comments in support of the persecution of the Jews in the National Socialist era. Among other insults, they shouted such calls as: “All the Poles should wear the yellow badge” or “Germans, defend yourselves. Do not buy from Poles”. The stupefaction is so big, because the police took all the safety measures possible before the match. The border control was reactivated and 400 German policemen provided their support to the 2000 Austrian policemen available in-situ. There were also some policemen who specialize in this type of soccer fans.
The person in charge of the security in the German Football Association, Helmut Spahn, says: “a small group has once again stained the peaceful majority”. There is a suspicion that those groups planned their deeds with great precision. The police superintendent, Mr. Rauchegger, believes that the right-wing extremists entered the country some days before the game. Most of them wore regular clothing. The police prevented even worse riots from occurring. The director of the fans’ coordination office, Michael Gabriel, a known fan of the local team in Klagenfurt anticipated the potential of violence: “Despite the awful expectations divulged by the media, the incident occurred relatively silently, except for the riots which have been described”.
144 Germans were arrested. Before that, 2 Austrians, 10 Poles and 1 Slovenian were arrested during the clashes that took place in the center of town. The police was prepared, but until now, the origin and the organizational level of those neo-nazis could not be identified and determined. It seems that they are acting according to a constant pattern, thus posing new challenges for the police and the football organization. Ten years have passed since the World Cup in France, when German fans brutally beat the French policeman Daniel Nivel in the city of Lens and inflicted on him severe injuries.
Since then, there has been a decline in the number of violent acts perpetrated in the surrounding areas of the soccer fields. But on the other hand, there has been a dramatic increase in case of racial insults and antisemitic chants. During the years, neo-nazis took advantage of matches that took place in Eastern Europe, in the cities of Celje and Bratislava, for instance, and more recently in Prague, aiming at demonstrating their presence. The worst incident occurred in September 1996 in Zabrze during a match between Poland and Germany.
The stadium, which was named in the past after Adolf Hitler, is located at approximately 30 kilometers from Auschwitz. Hundreds of neo-nazis shouted: “We are travelling to Poland in order to beat the Jews”. They carried signs saying: “Schindler’s Jews – we salute you”. The extreme-right intends to spread their opinions and to instigate the public. The fact that such occurrences took place also during the European matches in Klagenfurt is especially frightening, especially due to the fact that the police have prepared beforehand. Before the match between Germany and Croatia on Thursday, the police’s policy will be reexamined. Just some days ago, UEFA and the European Authority against Racism in Football jointly cosigned a declaration of intent. Before the semifinals of the European Championship, the coaches will address the crowd of fans. Additionally, the DFB participates in the “Net against the nazis” – an initiative of the weekly newspaper Die Zeit. The neo-nazis have already achieved their goal in the European Championship: They drove the public attention.
