A growing list of physical attacks on German politicians in recent weeks has brought condemnation from leaders and fears about the future of democracy in Germany and Europe.
The latest attacks this week included Berlin State Senator and former Mayor Franziska Giffey, who was attacked Tuesday at an event in a Berlin library. Reports say she was hit from behind by a man with a bag containing something “hard and heavy.” She was treated for her injuries and the man was taken into custody.
Later that same day, a 47-year-old female Green Party politician was attacked by two people while putting up election posters in Dresden.
German state-funded media company Deutsche Welle caught the assault on video. It shows the city council candidate being verbally attacked and spat on by a woman while the attacker’s male companion could be seen shoving members of the candidate’s team.
Along with insults, the attackers reportedly shouted support for the German right-wing Alternative for Germany party.
Two right-wing politicians were also attacked this week. Police in the southwestern city of Stuttgart say two state lawmakers from the far-right party Alternative for Germany (AfD) were verbally and physically abused late Wednesday as they managed an information booth about their party. Police say the injuries were not serious.
The worst of the recent attacks occurred a week ago in Dresden, where member of the European Parliament Matthias Ecke, a member of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s German Social Democrats (SPD) party, was brutally beaten by four assailants while putting up campaign posters. Party officials say his injuries will require surgery.
Four suspects in the attack on Ecke — aged 17 and 18 — have since been arrested.
The attacks have drawn commendation from German lawmakers from across the political spectrum. In a video message Thursday, Scholz referred to them as “attacks on our democracy” that “concern all of us, which is why we do not stand idly by when public officials, campaigners or volunteers are brutally attacked.”
He suggested one of the best things people can do to fight back is to vote in next month’s European Parliamentary elections.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, a former German politician herself, also spoke out against the violence Thursday during comments to the German conservative CDU party congress in Berlin.
“When we talk about threats to our democracy, we are not just talking about positions and content. It’s also about people,” she said. “We must protect all those who stand up for our democratic society and our country, regardless of which party they belong to.”
In an interview with Reuters television Friday, Bundeswehr University German political scientist Jasmin Riedl said the attacks are a worrying sign for liberal democracy.
“When it comes to verbal violence, people are supposed to be delegitimized. And that in itself is problematic for political competition. But when people are attacked, they withdraw from the political arena,” she said. “That ruins the competition because it makes it unfair for them. Certain groups are simply removed one by one.”
Some information for this report was provided by The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
