German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said on Monday that some anti-capitalist protesters at the G20 summit in Hamburg at the weekend were "criminal anarchists" who had acted like neo-Nazis or Islamist terrorists. The violence has angered Germans and raised awkward questions for Chancellor Angela Merkel less than three months before an election. "The brutality with which extremely violent anarchists have proceeded in Hamburg since Thursday is unfathomable and scandalous," de Maiziere told reporters. Militants who burned cars or plundered supermarkets were not activists or G20 opponents but rather "despicable violent extremists just like neo-Nazis and Islamist terrorists", the interior minister said. Martin Schulz, the Social Democrat (SPD) challenger to Chancellor Angela Merkel in Germany's national election in September, said the militants had acted like terrorists.

Source: The Star July 10, 2017 16:41 UTC