Violence
Faeser wants an internal conference on attacks on election campaigners
According to a media report, Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) suggested a special conference next week. photo
© Britta Pedersen/dpa
Unknown people beat an SPD politician to the hospital. In view of the violent attacks, the Federal Minister of the Interior is urging rapid consultations with the federal states. Demos are planned in Berlin and Dresden.
In Berlin, protests will take place in front of the Brandenburg Gate from 6 p.m., and in Dresden from 5 p.m. at Pohlandplatz, as stated in the Instagram posts published on Saturday evening by the Internet portal “Together Against the Right” and the alliance “We are the Firewall Dresden”. The alliances had already called for demonstrations against the right in February.
On Saturday, Faeser had already declared it urgent to convene a conference quickly. “The constitutional state must and will respond to this with tough action and further protective measures for the democratic forces in our country,” she said, referring to the violent attacks on politicians.
The Greens in Saxony have already reacted to other attacks last weekend in Chemnitz and Zwickau and are no longer sending their members alone to post posters. Other parties now also have such considerations and guidelines.
What happened
The Saxon SPD’s leading candidate for the European elections, Matthias Ecke, was beaten up by four unknown people while hanging up election posters in Dresden on Friday evening. The 41-year-old MEP has been in hospital since then and needs surgery. Shortly before, according to police, the same group had allegedly attacked and injured a 28-year-old Green Party campaign worker nearby.
According to police, the four young men are estimated to be between 17 and 20 years old. According to witnesses, they were dressed in dark clothing, a police spokesman said. A witness assigned her to the right-wing spectrum. The investigation would show whether that was true. According to the Saxon Interior Ministry, the State Criminal Police Office is now investigating.
What other attacks there were
The incidents in Dresden are part of a nationwide series of attacks on party members before the local and European elections on June 9th. Only on Thursday evening, after a Green Party event in Essen, Bundestag member Kai Gehring and his party colleague Rolf Fliß said they were attacked and Fliß was beaten. The Green Bundestag Vice President Katrin-Göring-Eckardt was aggressively harassed and prevented from leaving after an event in eastern Brandenburg a week ago. According to police, a member of the AfD state parliament was beaten at an information stand in Nordhorn, Lower Saxony, on Saturday morning.
The target group of the attackers has shifted somewhat in recent years: in 2019, representatives of the AfD were primarily the target of hostility, but now it is the Greens. According to preliminary figures, 478 cases were recorded nationwide for the AfD in 2023, and 1,219 for the Greens. A total of 10,537 crimes were reported for all parties from 2019 to 2023, according to a government response to a small question from the AfD parliamentary group.
Thuringia’s Interior Minister Georg Maier (SPD) speculated in the editorial network Germany: “In the case of the recent attacks against people who, for example, put up election posters, we have to assume that these are planned acts that are not carried out spontaneously, but in a targeted manner. This is a new level of escalation that has the declared aim of intimidation.”
What politics says
Given the injuries, the Dresden attack sparked particular outrage. “This outbreak of violence is a warning,” wrote Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier in a statement on Saturday. He appealed to everyone to conduct the political debate peacefully and with respect and called on supporters of liberal democracy to stand together across party lines against attacks.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) said in Berlin: “Democracy is threatened by something like this, and that’s why shrugging your shoulders and accepting it is never an option.” Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock wrote on the X platform, formerly Twitter: “Brutal attacks on committed democrats, campaigners and politicians are attacks on the foundation of our #democracy: free elections.” Violence is never a means of democracy – regardless of the spectrum.
Saxony’s Prime Minister Michael Kretschmer (CDU) called the attacks on Platform X “shocking”. Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck (Greens) explained: “They are the disgusting and inexcusable result of a brutalization of language, debate and disinhibition in the so-called social media.” Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) warned on
AfD leader Tino Chrupalla, whose party is blamed by some for an atmosphere conducive to violence, wrote on
What the demos are about
The two alliances’ call for demonstrations states that they want to take a stand together as a democratic civil society. “No one should have to fear for their safety because they are politically involved or active in a party!” it said. “We will not allow violence to destroy this democracy.”
The nationwide protests against the right in February were triggered by revelations by the media company Correctiv about a meeting of radical right-wingers in Potsdam, in which AfD politicians and individual members of the CDU and the very conservative Values Union also took part.