analysis
Bodily assault, stalking, coercion: After the recent attacks on politicians and election campaigners, calls for harsher punishments are becoming louder. Are new legal rules needed?
Berlin’s Senator for Economic Affairs Franziska Giffey was not attacked at night, not in a dark side street. But in one of the otherwise calmest places in the capital: in a district library, a man “attacked her from behind with a bag filled with hard contents,” according to the police report.
This latest case shows that it doesn’t just help to call for posters to only be hung up in daylight, as the Saxon SPD did after the beating attack on its European politician Matthias Ecke. Unfortunately, it is not just an empty phrase that attacks can threaten anywhere.
The interior ministers now write in their decision that “protection cannot be guaranteed by police and security authorities alone” in every place. It is therefore important to deter potential perpetrators in advance. It should be examined whether crimes against officials and elected officials should be listed separately in the criminal code and whether they should be judged more harshly because they are “endangering democracy”.
Political stalking as a new one Criminal offense?
It concerns offenses such as bodily harm, stalking, coercion or threats – the decision is aimed precisely at high-profile incidents of recent years. Unannounced protests in front of politicians’ private homes could be punished more harshly. Or coercion like the last one in Brandenburg, when two men tried to block the car of Bundestag Vice President Katrin Göring-Eckardt after a party event.
The proposals presented by Saxony also go in this direction. A new criminal offense should be created: political stalking, which is directed against officials and elected officials. So far, perpetrators have deliberately used gray areas of the law to intimidate, says Saxony’s Justice Minister Katja Meier (Greens). Now they want to close gaps in criminal liability.
New rules in the law could make it clearer that such attacks always undermine democracy to some extent. But would they deter? Does it need a separate criminal offense?
Severe penalties are already possible
It is already possible to impose severe penalties: In 2023, a man was sentenced by the Hechingen regional court to a fine of 16,000 euros because he organized an unannounced demonstration in front of the private home of Prime Minister Winfried Kretschmann (Greens). The trial made headlines. The consequences of such a demonstration could be read by anyone who was interested in similar actions.
The case of the Saxon SPD politician Petra Köpping is completely different: There have been several demonstrations in front of the minister’s private house near Grimma. In 2021, as the minister herself described it, suspected right-wing extremist opponents of vaccination organized a torchlight procession. The threatening images hit the internet. A few weeks later, the AfD also called for a protest in front of a private house.
What were the legal consequences of these protests? There was an investigation, but the proceedings were closed by the responsible public prosecutor’s office. There was not sufficient reason to file a lawsuit. In this case, the public is stuck: With such actions you attract a lot of attention and also get a lot of likes online. You won’t be punished. That should almost encourage imitators.
Very more different Dealing with similar cases
The two cases show that incidents that are actually similar are dealt with very differently on site. A clearer passage in the criminal code could possibly ensure that proceedings are not stopped so easily.
That was all years ago – and not much has happened since then. Even what the interior ministers are now suggesting is largely based on a Federal Council initiative that Bavaria initiated in September 2023. This also shows how long such projects remain undone. The plans are now likely to come too late for the upcoming election campaigns – and possibly also for the elections in the fall.
This election year will be different
Instead, it is already noticeable that it will be a different election year. One in which the protection concept of an event must always be taken into account.
Politicians normally like a summer election campaign like the one that is now leading up to the European and local elections and extending until the state elections in September. Good weather, better mood, people are more likely to stop – that’s how election campaigners describe it.
But the freely accessible event on the market square, which you can come to spontaneously, could become rarer. The Greens are planning a tour with 30 dates. Despite it being early summer, many of them take place indoors, from the Hafenschuppen Lübeck to the Schinkelhalle in Potsdam. Checks have been announced. Only small bags, no glass bottles or umbrellas may be taken with you.
Spontaneous conversations between citizens and politicians are likely to occur less frequently in the coming months. And perhaps some campaigners are feeling more uneasy than usual.