Berlin was plunged into darkness on Monday – not due to a technical fault, but because of what are believed to be deliberate arson attacks on two high-voltage pylons. Tens of thousands of households were without power for hours, nursing homes had to be evacuated, emergency lines collapsed, entire neighbourhoods were paralysed. Traffic lights, street lighting, shops – nothing worked anymore. It was a taste of how vulnerable a modern metropolis is when its infrastructure is attacked.
The police quickly made it clear: everything points to a politically motivated act. Fire accelerants, metal chains, a modus operandi familiar to experts from previous attacks. Shortly afterwards, a letter of confession appeared on a radical left-wing platform. The authors, who describe themselves as anarchists, boast of having cut off the power to the ‘military-industrial complex’. But in fact, they did not target research institutions, but the most vulnerable: elderly people who depend on ventilation, families who were left in the dark, citizens who could not reach anyone in an emergency.
Governing Mayor Kai Wegner (CDU) spoke of a ‘dangerous attack directed directly against the people of Berlin’. Interior Senator Iris Spranger (SPD) expressed her horror at the ‘high criminal energy’ of the perpetrators and promised: ‘We will get you.’ Both know that this is not a matter of rioting, but of an attack that deliberately endangers human lives.
The Office for the Protection of the Constitution has been warning for years about increasing radicalisation on the left. Acts of sabotage against electricity pylons, cable fires, attacks on infrastructure – all of this has often been downplayed as ‘militant actions’. But the threshold to left-wing terrorism is getting closer. Those who paralyse the lifelines of a city not only accept property damage, but also put the lives of innocent bystanders at risk. Now, at the latest, politicians must stop looking the other way.
What does this mean? Firstly, we need to take a sober look at left-wing extremist violence. It is no less dangerous than right-wing extremist or Islamist radicalisation – it threatens people and it threatens democracy. Secondly, the police, the judiciary and the Office for the Protection of the Constitution must coordinate their work and take consistent action. Networks must be uncovered, the people behind them identified and the perpetrators brought to justice. Thirdly, society must understand that attacks on critical infrastructure are attacks on us all.
The perpetrators wanted to demonstrate strength. In fact, they revealed weakness: the ruthlessness with which they hold the general public hostage. Those who act in this way are not waging a ‘war against the state’, but a war against the citizens. The constitutional state must not accept this. It must prove that it is capable of acting – not at some point in the future, but now.
The attack in Berlin has shown how thin the ice is on which our everyday life rests. A single spark is enough to plunge entire neighbourhoods into chaos. This makes it all the more important that we clearly identify the dangers and take decisive action. Darkness in Berlin must only be a consequence of sunset – not the result of extremist violence. (ml)
