Overview
- Sebastian Lechner made the remarks at a Junge Union event on Saturday, saying he wanted “these brothers” pinned to the ground with a Lower Saxony police officer kneeling over them and drawing prolonged applause from the youth wing.
- Julia Willie Hamburg, vice-minister-president and the Greens' lead candidate for 2027, called the language a “verbal lapse,” demanded a retraction and framed her criticism as a defence of responsible public debate.
- Lechner cited a late-October car attack in Neustadt am Rübenberge that injured five people and which police say stems from conflicts between large families often referred to in reporting as linked to so-called clan crime.
- Hamburg warned the remarks portray police as a “beating squad,” argued that coercive measures must be a last resort, and said the rhetoric risks undermining trust in everyday police work.
- The exchange sharpens Lower Saxony's campaign politics, with enthusiastic Junge Union support showing internal CDU appetite for tougher language and press coverage ranging from critical to sympathetic across the political spectrum.