Berlin Outage: The Consequence of Ignoring Leftist Extremism

The German authorities knew for months that the capital’s power network was at risk of an attack by left-wing activists, because plans were laid out in a pamphlet published in August.

Yet as the weekend’s arson-induced outage—which plunged large parts of Berlin into darkness and left tens of thousands of residents without electricity amid freezing winter conditions—revealed, these same authorities simply were not prepared.

AfD co-leader Alice Weidel said this “blatant failure” was telling of “the politically motivated prioritisation” of the security authorities:

Instead of combating real threats, they target blameless citizens and the country’s largest opposition. With devastating consequences for our infrastructure and the safety of the people.

Separately, she pointed the finger at Chancellor Friedrich Merz and his coalition partners, saying “the CDU/SPD Senate bears the responsibility with its inaction” and warning that “the renewed left-terrorist attack on the power grid”—indeed, this was the second left-wing extremist attack on the city’s power infrastructure in just four months—“shows where the state’s downplaying of left-wing extremism leads.”