Bavarian minister calls Left Party leader Schwerdtner a 'danger to Germany'

Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann of the conservative CSU has sharply attacked Ines Schwerdtner, co-leader of the Left Party. He told the Bild newspaper she was "a danger to Germany," calling her comments on the unrest in France "completely unacceptable." Herrmann accused her of welcoming the spread of the protests to other countries and of hoping for a similar scenario in Germany, saying she was trying to turn perpetrators into victims.

Earlier this week Schwerdtner told broadcaster ntv the protests in France were an expression of people's justified frustration and 99 percent peaceful, while saying destructive rage was not the right way. She urged politicians to channel the anger into real change on issues such as pensions and education. There was no immediate response from the Left Party to Herrmann's accusations.

The row comes ahead of a planned day of protest on Oct. 31, when the initiative "Gen Z regelt" is calling for demonstrations in 21 German cities modeled on those in France. The federal student council backs the calls and urges nonviolence. Federal Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt, also of the CSU, has warned that left-wing extremists could hijack the protests.