MERKEL BACKS NEW POWERS TO EXPEL MIGRANT CRIMINALS.

Cologne hits back: Merkel backs new powers to expel migrant criminals as anti-Islam protesters take to streets and police admit 'majority' of sex attackers were refugees

Police use pepper spray against supporters of anti-immigration right-wing movement Pegida

One of the large banners held at the demonstration read: 'Citizens stand up. Protect our children and future. We are the people'

"If the law does not suffice, then the law must be changed' she said, vowing action to protect not just German citizens, but innocent refugees too.

Outrage is growing in Germany over the revelations that hundreds of women ran a gauntlet of groping hands, lewd insults and robberies in mob violence last week in the western city. 

At least 379 cases of violence on New Year's Eve in Cologne have been filed, with asylum seekers and illegal immigrants making up the vast majority of suspects, police said today.

The police said around 40 per cent of those case related to sexual assault and they are mostly investigating 'people from North African countries'.

Around 100 investigators are now looking into whether charges can be brought against the suspects.

Cologne police chief Wolfgang Albers was suspended yesterday after his force came under fire for failing to prevent the shocking night of crime, despite heightened police presence on New Year's Eve.

Witnesses described terrifying scenes of women running the 'gauntlet' of groping hands, lewd insults and robberies in the mob violence.

 

Around 1,700 protesters from the anti-Islam Pegida movement (pictured) were kept apart from 1,300 counter demonstrators as tension mounted on the streets of Cologne

Police used water cannon and pepper spray in an attempt to disperse some of the more aggressive protester

Police use water to control supporters of Pegida, Hogesa (Hooligans against Salafists) and other right-wing populist groups in Cologne

Police drive back protesters at a demonstration by the anti-Islam Pegida movement in Cologne

A firework explodes near police officers during a right-wing demonstration in Cologne

German federal police said they had identified 32 people who were suspected of playing a role in the violence, 22 of whom were in the process of seeking asylum in Germany.

Officers found a note on one of the arrested men containing Arabic-German translations for phrases including 'nice breasts', 'I'll kill you' and 'I want to have sex with you'. 

The majority of suspects identified by federal police are also migrants, adding fuel to criticism of Merkel's liberal migrant policy - which brought 1.1million new asylum seekers to Germany last year.

Around 1,700 protesters from the anti-Islam Pegida movement were kept apart from 1,300 counter demonstrators as tension mounted on the streets of Cologne. Police deployed water cannon and pepper spray in an attempt to disperse some of the more aggressive protesters.

Waving German flags and signs meaning 'Rapefugees not welcome', 'Germany survived war, plague and cholera, but Merkel?', hundreds of Pegida supporters shouted 'Merkel raus' (Merkel out).

In response, counter-protesters, separated by police, chanted 'Nazis raus' at the site, where earlier, some 500 protesters, mostly women, had held a noisy rally against sexist violence.

Banging pots and blowing whistles, demonstrators waved signs in German meaning 'No violence against women' and 'No means no! It's the law!' while others read: 'Protect our women and children.' 

A woman addressed the crowd, made up of more or less organised groups and supporters taking a stand against the Pegida's demo.

'These hooligans are not our allies in our fight against sexual violence,' she shouts out over the crowd.

Turning to the hundreds of riot police surrounding the protest as activists from both left and right pour out of the Hauptbahnhof main station, she adds 'Where were you on New Years Eve?'

'Cologne is no place for racism. We don't want them [Pegida] here,' says Lisa, 23.

Alexander, 18, said: 'The things that happened on New Years Eve were terrible, but you cant blame all refugees because of what some did. 

'We are a rich country and it is out duty to care for those who come here and search for help. If you go out late at night and someone is an asshole, left or right, German or other, something can happen.'

'We can't mix up sexism and racism', added a 29-year-old woman. 

On the other side of the station, in the square by the cathedral where it is now reported that more than 100 women were sexually assaulted and robbed, there are even more officers than protesters.

We are heading towards importing the lack of respect for women in Muslim nations to us. All Muslim men don't do this, but enough for us to have a problem

Thomas Traeder, right wing Alternativ für Dutschland party

'We are heading towards importing the lack of respect for women in Muslim nations to us. All Muslim men don't do this, but enough for us to have a problem,' said Thomas Traeder of right-wing populist Alternativ für Dutschland party.

There is no mistaking who supports who in the square outside the station.. They move in groups of three to ten towards where the Pegida demo is set to start.

'We are taking back out country!,' one young man dressed in all black, who has a shaved head and sunglasses on, despite the bright sun.

Chancellor Angela Merkel has confirmed her CDU party on Saturday had approved a proposal seeking stricter laws regulating asylum seekers.

Merkel said the proposal, which will be discussed with her coalition partners and would need parliamentary approval, would help Germany deport 'serial offenders' convicted of lesser crimes.

'This is in the interests of the citizens of Germany, but also in the interests of the great majority of the refugees who are here,' Merkel told party members in Mainz. 

However, she also reiterated her mantra on the refugee issue, insisting again 'we will manage it.'

Bonn University political scientist Tilman Mayer said he doesn't see the CDU proposal as either a change of course, nor one likely to dispel many Germans' concerns.

'This is just a building block in a chain of statements from the government and also the chancellor,' he said on Phoenix television.

Though Merkel has decried the assaults as 'repugnant criminal acts that... Germany will not accept,' they provide fodder for those who have opposed her open-door policy and refusal to set a cap on refugee numbers.