strong condemnations after the attack on an MEP who was “seriously injured”

A German MEP from the ruling Social Democratic Party (SPD) was attacked and seriously injured while putting up election posters on Friday May 3. This attack was strongly condemned by the entire political class who are concerned about the increase in violence against elected officials.. “Democracy is threatened by these kinds of acts”, reacted in particular the German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. He wished Matthias Ecke, a member of his party, to “to face what has entered his life as a horror”.

The attack suffered Friday evening in Dresden, in eastern Germany, by this MEP, also head of the SPD list in the Saxony region for the European elections in June, is not the first targeting the latter month of German political representatives. According to the regional police, the 41-year-old elected official was “struck” by four unknown persons while putting up campaign posters for the party of Chancellor Olaf Scholz. He was “seriously injured and requires surgery”detailed the SPD federation of Saxony.

“A serious attack on democracy”

The police add that before this attack, a 28-year-old man putting up posters for the Green party, in the same street, was also beaten. “with punches and kicks”. Investigators say they suspect the same group of attackers, particularly because “match in description” suspects. The investigation was entrusted to the State Protection services, meaning that the police are investigating the possibility of politically motivated violence.

“If a politically motivated attack (…) is confirmed a few weeks before the European elections, this serious act of violence also constitutes a serious attack on democracy”, reacted Interior Minister Nancy Faeser in a press release. Considering that it is a “new dimension of anti-democratic violence”the minister invokes the responsibility of “extremists and populists, who fuel a climate of increasing violence through totally disproportionate verbal attacks”.