Police suspect sabotage after another device found

The Bavarian State Criminal Police Office (LKA) on Friday said a 28-year-old woman and a 38-year-old man detained in connection with an arson attack in Munich are due to appear in court where a judge will decide whether to issue a formal arrest order.

Early Thursday morning, police were called to a fire at a construction site located near buildings in Munich’s Berg am Laim neighborhood belonging to defense tech companies, including Helsing and Rohde & Schwarz.

Police said incendiary devices were thrown from a car. One was extinguished and did not cause any damage. Another was defused.

The suspects, both Bulgarian citizens, were arrested shortly after the incident at a nearby gas station. Police have not released any information about a possible motive.

Markets on Friday responded positively after German automobile giant Volkswagen announced a major restructure that averted an escalation with unions and shareholder ​Lower ‌Saxony.

The carmaker announced on Thursday that it would be cutting a total of 100,000 jobs by the end of the decade in what is set to be the biggest restructuring ever seen in the global car industry.

The company said that management and trade unions had approved a plan involving the reduction of a further 50,000 jobs, in addition to 50,000 redundancies already agreed.

“It is essential to systematically align workforce levels with economic realities,” read a statement from the multi-brand Volkswagen group which, apart from VW itself, also includes Audi and Porsche.

The total of 100,000 cuts amount to about 15% of Volkswagen staff worldwide. The cull eclipses the 50,000 job cuts General Motors made after it declared bankruptcy in 2009.

Unions and management had publicly rowed before signing off on the plans, with the former accusing the latter of not being honest with the workforce after the figure of 100,000 possible job cuts surfaced in the media before being communicated internally.

Volkswagen also said the long-term future of four major German plants – in Hannover, Emden, Zwickau and Neckarsulm — could not be guaranteed.

Their closure would mark the first full-scale shuttering of Volkswagen factories in its home country.

The eastern German state of Saxony-Anhalt goes to the polls on Sunday, and several parties are holding closing rallies on Friday to drum up support among undecided voters.

According to a survey by polling group “Forschungsgruppe Wahlen” cited by DPA news agency, 31% of respondents are still undecided.

Polls are showing the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party in the lead as it aims for an a absolute majority that would allow it to lead a state government in Germany for the first time. 

The AfD’s lead candidate Ulrich Siegmund and national party chairman Tino Chrupalla are due at a campaign event in the state capital, Magdeburg.

Sven Schulze, currently state premierand lead candidate for the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU), also has engagements in Magdeburg planned for Friday.

The Left Party’s lead candidate Eva von Angern is appearing in Magdeburg, and the city of Halle, alongside leading party figures Heidi Reichinnek, Gregor Gysi and Dietmar Bartsch.

The Greens are planning events in Halle and Naumburg, with lead candidate Susan Sziborra-Seidlitz joined by federal party chairman Felix Banaszak.

Saxony-Anhalt’s current coalition government, comprising the CDU, center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) and the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP),  is set to lose its majority, according to polls.

 In the northwestern region of Lower Saxony, police are investigating “suspicious objects” found in the pre-dawn hours Friday morning at a power substation near the small town of Ganderkesee outside of Bremen, the Bild tabloid reported.

“A discovery was made that required a police investigation,” a police spokeswoman was quoted by the newspaper as saying. A helicopter had been called in to illuminate the area from above.

No further details were immediately available.

Police in western Germany say a suspicious device found at an electricity substation in the small city of Dormagen between Cologne and Düsseldorf was likely intended to “cause damage.”

“Someone apparently tried to deliberately cause a short circuit,” a Cologne police spokesperson told AFP news agency. 

The object was discovered late Thursday by a passer-by. A police spokesperson said it may have been a “suspicious launching device.” 

The Bild tabloid reported that homemade rockets with launching devices, including timers and cooper wires, were discovered. Police have not confirmed the report. 

The new discovery Friday is the latest this week in what police say are attempts at damaging critical infrastructure. 

The first incident on Tuesday near the Jänschwalde coal power plant in the eastern state of Brandenburg involved homemade projectiles resembling New Year’s Eve fireworks that can short out high-voltage power lines by shooting a grounding wire over them.

A day later, similar objects were found near a power station in Bergheim, in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia. 

Guten morgen from the DW newsroom in Bonn.

A number of suspicious devices have been found near German power infrastructure this week, with a third incident overnight in Dormagen being treated by police as a likely sabotage attempt.

No significant damage has been reported in any of the cases and police have not revealed any suspects. 

Meanwhile, parties in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt are holding their final campaign events ahead of a state election on Sunday that could see the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) come out on top. 

Stay with us as we bring you the latest developments on these stories and more.