Leading national and local politicians, as well as about 1,500 relatives, friends and people , who came to show their sympathy, honored the memory of the policeman who was stabbed with a knife a week ago by an Afghan immigrant in the southwestern German city of Mannheim, DPA reported, quoted by BTA.
German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier described the melee attack in Mannheim's central city square, in which a law enforcement officer was fatally wounded, as a "bloody act of terrorism.
During the commemoration, the mother of 29-year-old police officer Ruven Laur burst into tears. Her son died last Sunday, just days after he was injured trying to intervene in an attack in which a man attacked several people during a rally by the anti-Islam movement "Pax Europe". in Mannheim, a city in the state of Baden-Württemberg.
Steinmeier, Baden-Württemberg Prime Minister Winfried Kretschmann and Regional Interior Minister Thomas Strobl observed a moment of silence in memory of the policeman. Law enforcement officers throughout Germany also paid their respects to Laur.
In recent weeks, the "vile acts of political violence" have not stopped, mayors, ministers, MPs and party activists have been attacked, Steinmeier said.
"We Democrats in this country must never and will never put up with the use of violence in political disputes," the president declared.
Because of the deadly knife attack, Chancellor Olaf Scholz wants to resume deportations to Afghanistan and Syria for perpetrators of serious crimes. But in his statement on the matter on behalf of the government, it is not specified how he plans to turn his intentions into reality.
During the attack, the Afghan also wounded five participants in the rally, which took place on May 31, who are still suffering from the consequences and are in pain, said Stefani Kitsina from "Pax Europe".
"We are still in shock," she said. "First we have to pull ourselves together, get over the shock of what happened."
According to her, the 59-year-old member of the organization's management board, Michael Stürzenberger, had to be hospitalized again because of the excessive amount of blood he lost as a result of his injuries during the attack.
Last night, after the ceremony in memory of the murdered policeman, several hundred people demonstrated against Islamism, organized by the far-right party "Alternative for Germany". (AzG) in Mannheim. She was met by a counter-protest of several thousand people who chanted "Get the Nazis out of the country".
According to the police, the participants in the AzG rally were about 700, and those in the counter-demonstration - about 3,300.