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The Cologne protests indicate a growing number of people are not willing to accept the German policy of supporting violent extremism in Syria, and ignoring the problems of mass migration and Islamism, journalist Manuel Ochenreiter told RT.

RT: Why have these protests been held in Cologne in particular?

Manuel Ochenreiter: It’s an interesting development, we face such protests… For example, we had clashes between Kurds and Islamists in some German cities with a lot of injured people, also injured policemen. The problem of mass migration, the problem of Islamism seems to be ignored by established mainstream politics and more and more people ask questions where the answers don’t seem to come. We face this violence…and I’m worried that we will face such scenes much more in the future as long as there will be no solution to those problems.

RT: Most of the people who marched the streets were far-right activists and self-proclaimed “soccer hooligans.” Does this discontent spread beyond these small groups?

MO: These were not just far-right protests. These were also football hooligans that are hooligans who were not political at all before. It was a mix of people, among them of course far-right protesters. But in the end these were a couple of thousands of people protesting in Cologne in clashes with police, were showing that among those protesters there were also a lot of violent people. Of course we cannot say that they represent the majority of the people. But the problem of Islamism, the problem of violence, also a problem that Germany is a country which supports violent Islamism, for example, in Syria by promoting, funding and supporting the so-called rebel factions which are nothing else [but] violent Islamist extremists, shows that more and more people are not confident with the politics. Normal people are not going on the street and beating the policemen, not protesting. It shows an atmosphere, a sort of sentiment that an increasing number of people are not willing to accept this politics anymore. And politicians are now asked to find a solution, but they seem to have been ignoring all those problems for many years. The ignorance of those problems causes this violence, blood, injured policemen and injured civilians on German streets.