Matthias Ecke seems somewhat speechless for a moment when the Federal President asks him to talk about how he was attacked and seriously injured during the Saxony election campaign in May. Anyone who knows the SPD MEP knows that he is rarely speechless. His case is much less serious, Ecke then says, and cannot be compared to those of his previous speakers, the survivors and relatives of the attacks in Hanau and on Berlin’s Breitscheidplatz.
All those who spoke after him also stressed that the cases cannot be compared. However, each of the nine guests has experienced political violence. Assaults, attacks, threats. Sometimes for racist or anti-Semitic reasons. Sometimes because they, as police officers, politicians or journalists, personify an institution hated by the perpetrators. Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier has therefore invited them to a “round table” at Bellevue Palace.
The number of politically motivated crimes has risen steadily in recent years: in 2023 it was more than 60,000. According to the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA), almost half of these have a right-wing political background. The number of insults and threats has risen significantly, while the number of politically motivated violent crimes has fallen slightly, but this can only be attributed to the decline in the “other classification” area: the BKA classified crimes directed against the state’s pandemic policy in this category. In all other areas, there were more violent crimes last year.
“First there is hatred, then there is attack”
At the beginning of a speech, the Federal President said that political violence was “erasing the basic rules of democracy”. The path to this was insidious. The inhibition threshold was falling, language was becoming coarser. “First there was hatred, then there was attack,” said Steinmeier. He also saw social media as responsible: If large digital companies did not take quicker and more decisive action against crimes and threats, democracy would erode.
Braun-Lübcke also ultimately directs the issue to social media. Civil society must also open its eyes here and defend its values. The journalist Franziska Klemenz, who is Reporter of the Sächsische Zeitung was confronted with threats of violence and rape offline and onlineis even more specific: “I want a law enforcement agency that takes people seriously. Especially when it comes to digital crimes.” The justice system is clearly still lacking knowledge in this area.
It is one of the topics that runs through the morning. Many of the relatives and those affected say that they did not always feel that the authorities took them seriously after the attacks; the psychological and financial care of the victims is often initially provided by private solidarity networks. Said Etris Hashemi, who survived the racist attack in Hanau in 2020 and lost his brother and several friends, explains: In addition to grief, many families also had to worry about how they would make ends meet financially in the future.
The victims often feel that the authorities do not take them seriously
Astrid Passin knows these problems only too well. She lost her father in the Islamist attack on Berlin’s Breitscheidplatz and has been speaking on behalf of the bereaved for several years. She is proud that the commitment of relatives and bereaved has led to a new compensation law, she says, but lessons should have been learned much earlier from attacks such as the one on the Munich Oktoberfest in 1980.
Katrin Habenschaden nods clearly again and again at this point. The former mayor of Munich has been invited to talk about her experiences with threats of violence as a local politician. It is in these moments that the weakness of the format at Bellevue Palace becomes apparent. Just when an exchange between the various people involved begins to develop, a discussion or mutual encouragement, Steinmeier intervenes and turns to a new person. This gives the format more the character of a talk show in which the Federal President addresses each participant individually in Plasberg-esque fashion.
Meanwhile, there seems to be a proverbial blue elephant in the middle of the round table. Almost all of the guests touch on the AfD in their remarks, and hardly anyone mentions it by name. Matthias Ecke puts it this way: “We are dealing with political polarization companies that profit from a culture of political violence.” With regard to the migration policy discussions of the past few weeks, Hashemi issues a warning: “The debates we are currently having are dangerous,” he says. The majority in this country is not right-wing. But if the democratic center jumps on the right’s issues, that is a huge problem: “Narratives are being formed that lead to actions.”