Lower Saxony: Minister horrified by CDU leader Sebastian Lechner's “violent fantasies”.

Lower Saxony's deputy head of government Julia Willie Hamburg is outraged by statements made by CDU state leader Sebastian Lechner about so-called "clan crime". “I am horrified by the verbal derailment of the state chairman of the CDU,” said the Green politician. »He tries to attract and polarize attention with violent fantasies. This is unworthy of someone who aspires to become prime minister and take responsibility for the country.

At a Junge Union event on Saturday in Cuxhaven, Lechner called for consistent action against criminal clan members. Lechner said: "I don't want to see these brothers standing on my street, I want to see them lying on the ground and see a Lower Saxony police officer kneeling over them."

The CDU politician recalled the car attack on a crowd in his hometown of Neustadt am Rübenberge in the Hanover region at the end of October. Five people were injured. The police assume a conflict between large families, some of which can be attributed to criminal family ties.

Hamburg, on the other hand, accused Lechner of doing the police a disservice with his statements by portraying them "as a beating squad." Coercive measures should be used as a last resort. »And that’s exactly how the police in Lower Saxony work. Suggesting that the police would use violence arbitrarily is irresponsible," said Hamburg in her role as the Green Party's top candidate for the 2027 state elections.

“Instead of fantasies of violence, responsible debates and real solutions belong in the political discourse,” demanded the Minister of Education. She expects Lechner to take back his “derailment.”

In his speech to the JU, Lechner criticized that the red-green state government's response to criminal clan members consisted of a debate about the question of whether the term "clan" was discriminatory and racist. "That is completely the wrong motivation." Politicians should not allow such people to spread fear. “But we have to face them courageously and decisively.”