Germany - More detail of the attacks by migrants slowly emerges

News has been slow to emerge in both the German and British media concerning the events in Cologne on New Years Eve. At first both the BBC and Sky seemed to be in denial about the events as did the local German media. But now, at least German public broadcaster ZDF has apologised for delays in reporting the sexual assaults, after it emerged they had details of the story for 24 hours before they broadcast them.

But now far more facts are slowly emerging and they are not very nice.  Spiegel International gives quite comprehensive details in which it is admitted that German police lost control of the situation.

It is also emerging that similar attacks have been reported in other major German cities as well as in Austria. In most cases there appears a deliberate attempt by the local authorities to minimise what has taken place. Breitbart mentions attacks in Berlin, Hamburg, Stuttgart and Dusseldorf in addition to those in Cologne.

The (female) Mayor of Cologne who is on record a welcoming migrants has said:
'It is always possible to keep a certain distance that is longer than an arm's length, 'need to be 'better prepared' for such incidents. Speaking on live TV, she said women should be 'more protected in the future so these things don't happen again'. 'This means they should go out and have fun, but they need to be better prepared.'
In other words, if you are attacked, it's your own fault, not that of the attackers!

Breitbart also reveals that the interior minister for the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, within which Cologne is situated, has said people of a right wing persuasion discussing the mass sexual assaults on New Years Eve online are equally “awful” as the attackers and rapists. At the same time the German government is trying to have anti-immigration speech banned from the social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter.

These politicians seem to be totally out of touch with reality, as do the local police chiefs.

A number of anti-immigrant organisations are planning protests in Cologne on Saturday, it will be interesting to see how the authorities handle the situation.

Not being a fan of the seaside, Germany has always been one of my favourite countries for a European holiday, but it now looks as if most of mainland Europe is now totally out of the question as far as holidaying is concerned.