A German politician was attacked and seriously injured by four assailants late last night while putting up campaign posters in the eastern German city of Dresden, police said today, citing from DPA.
Forty-one-year-old Matthias Ecke, who is a member of the center-left German Social Democratic Party, is currently a member of the European Parliament.
After the attack, he was taken to hospital for treatment and will have to undergo surgery. Eke is the leader of the GSDP list for the upcoming European elections in the eastern German state of Saxony. Police said the attackers have not yet been identified.
Minutes earlier, according to law enforcement agencies, a group of four unknown persons attacked a 28-year-old activist of the Greens election campaign, also while he was pasting posters. The attackers punched and kicked him, causing him unspecified injuries.
Due to the similar description of the perpetrators and the close proximity of the locations where the beatings took place, investigators believe they were the work of the same group. The party organization of the German Social Democratic Party in Saxony said that other teams of campaign activists who put up posters were also subjected to insults and attempts at intimidation, adding that campaign materials had been destroyed.
This attack is "an unmistakable signal to all people in the country", the co-chairs of the German Social Democratic Party of Saxony, Henning Hohmann and Kathryn Michel, said in a joint statement. The two regional party leaders accused the far-right "Alternative for Germany" and other far-right organizations in sowing hatred against democratic politicians and warned that right-wingers are now acting "without any restraint and viewing democratic politicians as easy prey". German democracy "should not tolerate this", they pointed out.
German Interior Minister Nancy Feser, who is also a representative of Germany's Social Democratic Party, said that if it were proven that the attack was politically motivated, it would be a "very serious attack on democracy,", the Associated Press reported.
"We are witnessing a new dimension of anti-democratic violence," she pointed out. The German Social Democratic Party is also the party of the Chancellor of Germany, Olaf Scholz. In Essen, the police are also looking for two suspects, this time for an attack on two politicians from the Green Party, which took place on Thursday evening in the city, Nova TV reports.
The case has been taken over by the specialized police Service for the Protection of the State due to the possibility that the attack may be politically motivated. Kai Göring, who is a member of the German parliament in Berlin, was with Rolf Fliess, a local politician from Essen, when people approached them on the street at around 10:30 p.m.
After an initial friendly conversation, an argument ensued, followed by insults. Fliss was hit in the face and is slightly injured. The two suspects fled in a taxi. So far, there is no information about what the attackers said to the two green politicians during the fight. The edition "Vestalgemeine Zeitung" reported, citing Fliess, that the perpetrators knew that he and Goering were official representatives in elected office.
In a joint statement, the two politicians said: "We are concerned about the growing hostility towards politicians. We will not be intimidated because we need people who are dedicated to the service of society.'' The local structure of the Greens in Essen described the attack as a future complete bewilderment. "We stand together against (such actions) and will continue to fight for a world in which politicians can work without fear," the city's party organization said.