Munich has stepped up security for Sunday’s St Patrick’s Day Parade, a month after a car attack on a march in the city left two dead and injured 39.
The St Patrick’s Day parade attracted at least 80,000 people last year and is the largest such gathering in continental Europe. It will also be one of the first big public gatherings in the Bavarian capital since the February 13th attack, for which the chief suspect is a 24-year-old Afghan failed asylum seeker.
Munich police declined to comment on specific security measures for the weekend, acknowledging only that “due to a tense global political situation, security measures for events and gatherings remain at a consistently high level”.
“These measures are continuously reviewed and adjusted as necessary, particularly following the incident in February on Seidlstrasse in Munich,” said Christian Drexler, Munich’s chief police commissioner.
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He said there was “currently no evidence of any specific threat to St Patrick’s Day in Munich”.
Munich-based Irish organisers of the parade said extra security from police was a new reality for this year’s parade, building on their own security plans and private security measures.
“We have spent a lot more effort ensuring access is closed off to any vehicle,” said Derek McDonnell, head of the Munich Irish Network, which is behind the parade. “We have professional stewards managing all of the entry locations, more infrastructure bollards and the police stepping up activities.”
After last month’s attack there was concern over whether the parade could proceed. Munich’s carnival parade was cancelled.
Irish organisers said they benefited from having an extra month to “double- and triple-check” their security plans, developed by an experienced team behind the annual Oktoberfest parade.
The St Patrick’s Day parade in Munich is a non-profit event organised by volunteers among the Irish community, with security measures financed largely through a €95,000 grant from Munich city council and a €12,000 grant from Ireland’s Emigrant Support Programme.
Mr McDonnell said he fielded only a few concerned queries in advance of the festival, which begins on Saturday.
Organisers of the parade expressed disappointment that Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe, Ireland’s representative in Germany for St Patrick’s Day, would be unable to attend.
“We would have loved to have had someone official from the Government,” said Mr McDonnell.
Asked about his absence, Mr Donohoe said on Thursday he had been on the road for a week in Germany, in Frankfurt and Berlin. Ireland’s new consulate general in Munich, he added, meant there was a permanent presence there “for 365 days a year more than a case of a minister there for one day a year”.
Leading Munich officials welcomed the fact the parade would proceed as usual this year, thanks largely to the city’s €95,000 annual grant.
“Every cent is well invested,” said Clemens Baumgärtner, economic expert of the Munich city government, to the Süddeutsche Zeitung daily, “as the festival sends a signal for the local economy and culture far beyond St Patrick’s Day.”
