After the serious attack on SPD politician Matthias Ecke in Saxony, the police were able to identify all four suspects. One of the accused turned himself in at the weekend.
Three days after the attack on Saxony’s top candidate for the European elections, Matthias Ecke, the police have identified all four suspected attackers. The Saxony State Criminal Police Office (LKA) announced this on its website. These are young Germans aged 17 and 18. All of the accused are therefore at large because there are no grounds for arrest against them.
On Sunday night, a 17-year-old turned himself in to the police and confessed to being involved in the attack. Two more suspects were then identified. The fourth accused was also identified on Sunday. According to the LKA, the apartments of the three other suspects were searched. Evidence was secured. Two of the suspects are already known to the police, as the AFP news agency reported, citing security sources.
Corner will probably be in the hospital for several more days
The 41-year-old SPD politician was attacked on Friday evening while hanging up election posters for his party. He was seriously injured. As the SPD regional association in Saxony announced, Ecke had to undergo surgery on Sunday. Ecke suffered a fracture of the cheekbone and eye socket as well as hematomas on his face.
Ecke survived the operation well, “as far as one can say at the moment,” said SPD General Secretary Kevin Kühnert. But he also emphasized that the recovery process “will be a long road.” Ecke will have to stay in the hospital for the next few days. But the 41-year-old did not want to be intimidated, Kühnert continued. Rather, he is “determined to be able to return to this election campaign.”
According to the SPD Saxony, there were also attempts at intimidation, destruction of posters and insults among other party poster teams. A member of the Green Party is also said to have been attacked while putting up election posters. According to the police, there were also cases of property damage in Dresden and Saxony. An AfD information stand was damaged and numerous election posters from several parties were destroyed.
Do not hang election posters alone or at night
In view of the attack on Ecke, Thuringia’s Interior Minister Georg Maier emphasized that more prevention and repression were required in order to better protect politicians. “We have to expect attacks everywhere,” said the SPD politician to the dpa news agency. Therefore, “rules of conduct” must also be recommended – even if it is unfortunate that this fulfills one of the attackers’ goals: intimidation.
Nevertheless, he advised SPD campaigners to “be careful not to hang the posters alone, especially not in the evening or at night.”
The federal government also once again commented on attacks on politicians. Violence should never be a means of political debate, emphasized deputy government spokeswoman Christiane Hoffmann: “Anyone who attacks people who work for the community is attacking the open and democratic society.”
The federal and state governments advise on protection against violence
Recently there were several attacks on party members nationwide before the local and European elections on June 9th. On Tuesday, the federal and state governments want to discuss at a special conference how politicians and democracy as a whole can be protected from the increasing level of violence.
To take a stand against violence, thousands of people took to the streets in Dresden and Berlin yesterday.