The head of the Federal Criminal Police Office, Münch, attributes the increasing number of attacks on politicians to growing dissatisfaction with the state. Some political actors have deliberately fuelled this via social media.
Crimes against politicians and other elected officials have increased. For the head of the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA), Holger Münch, this is alarming. He sees a growing dissatisfaction among the population with politics and state institutions, which is also leading to an increasing willingness to use violence.
There were around 5,400 attacks on public officials and elected representatives last year. This figure from the current Statistics on politically motivated crime Münch once again points this out in an interview with the newspaper taz. Compared to the previous year, this is an increase of around 29 percent, which, according to Münch, corresponds to a tripling of attacks within the last five years. Only a fraction of the crimes are violent crimes.
Münch warns nonetheless: “But we see that dissatisfaction with state institutions encourages insults and threats – and also violence. And this is now increasing ahead of the upcoming elections.”
The European elections are coming up in about two weeks. At the beginning of September, citizens in Saxony and Thuringia will be called upon to elect a new state parliament, followed three weeks later by Brandenburg. This Sunday, local elections will also be held in Thuringia.
Attacks on politicians from various parties
“Nobody can say what the threshold is at which democracy tips over,” says Münch. “But if 10 percent of officials and elected representatives say they are considering quitting because of the hostility and another almost 10 percent say they no longer want to run for office because of the hostility, this value is clearly too high.”
There have been repeated attacks on politicians from various parties. But campaign workers have also been verbally or physically attacked. Most recently, AfD MP Mario Kumpf was punched in the face. At the beginning of May, Berlin’s Senator for Economic Affairs Franziska Giffey was slightly injured in an attack and a few days earlier, Green MP Kai Gehring and his party colleague Rolf Fliß were attacked after a party event in Essen.
This list does not include all attacks on politicians or party members. The attack on Saxony’s SPD top candidate for the European elections, Matthias Ecke, attracted a great deal of attention nationwide. The 41-year-old was attacked and seriously injured around three weeks ago while putting up election posters.
This was an extremely brutal act of violence that shows where political aggression can lead, warned Münch. “Such violence can escalate to attempted or completed murder, as we experienced in the Walter Lübcke case. We are very alert and on alert to ensure that this does not happen,” said the BKA chief.
The President of the Kassel District Court, Walter Lübcke, was shot at close range in front of his house in early June 2019. His murderer, who acted out of right-wing extremist motives, was sentenced to life imprisonment.
Direct criticism of AfD
In the BKA chief’s view, the dissatisfaction and polarization of society is being fueled primarily by social networks. Narratives and enemy images are being spread through these networks. Münch warned: “Every political actor who does not contribute to an objective discourse but instead creates scapegoats – keywords ‘foreigner problem’ and ‘remigration’ – contributes to this polarization.”
He also directed his criticism specifically at the AfD. The party is increasingly trying to use social media and channels for its own benefit. On TikTok, no other party reaches as many users as the AfD. “Such a presence can be used to calm or worry. And many of the AfD’s publications do not help to calm people down,” said Münch.
Ex-Constitutional judge Müller against new Criminal offenses
In domestic politics, the attacks on politicians have sparked a discussion about better protection for politically active people and a possible tightening of criminal law. After the attack on the SPD politician Ecke, the federal and state interior ministers discussed the issue at a special conference and spoke out in favor of such tightening.
Former constitutional judge Peter Müller also condemned attacks of this kind in the strongest possible terms. “Anyone who physically attacks a politician often shows contempt for the state order and the political system as a whole,” he wrote in the Süddeutsche Zeitung.
However, Müller believes that creating new criminal offenses is unnecessary. Instead, he advocated the consistent application of existing law. But for that to happen, the public prosecutors would need sufficient staff.