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Five years after the massive sexual assaults against women on New Year's Eve in Cologne, the North Rhine-Westphalian Prime Minister Armin Laschet (CDU) asked the victims for forgiveness.
The women were left in the lurch by the state, wrote the CDU politician in a guest article for the "Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger".
It is "our duty" to ask the victims' forgiveness that the state did not protect them that night - regardless of who was politically responsible at the time ”.
On New Year's Eve 2015/2016, a crowd had formed in front of Cologne Cathedral.
Numerous women had been sexually assaulted and robbed from it.
According to the public prosecutor's office in Cologne, the majority of the accused came from Algeria and Morocco.
The events in Cologne made headlines around the world.
Laschet had already spoken of blatant omissions in the past and now repeated this criticism in his contribution.
“661 women lived through a nightmare in Cologne five years ago, and many of them are still suffering from the consequences today.
661 women were abandoned by the state that night. "
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Laschet, who was not yet in office at the time, complained that there were only 36 convictions in more than 1200 reports and only three men were convicted of sexual offenses.
Until 2017, the SPD and Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen had ruled in North Rhine-Westphalia, Hannelore Kraft was Prime Minister.