Olaf Scholz condemns attacks on politicians after third assault in a week | Germany

Germany’s chancellor, Olaf Scholz, has strongly condemned a rash of attacks on politicians after a senator and former mayor of Berlin was struck over the top in a public library in the third assault on an elected official in lower than a week.

Franziska Giffey, a member of Scholz’s centre-left Social Democratic social gathering (SPD) was barely injured and briefly hospitalised after a man hit her from behind with a bag containing an unidentified laborious object on Tuesday. Police have arrested a 74-year-old male suspect.

“The attacks on Franziska Giffey and other politicians are outrageous and cowardly,” Scholz stated on Wednesday. “Violence does not belong in a democratic debate. Decent and reasonable people are clearly standing against it – and they are the majority.”

The German authorities condemned a “growing number of despicable attacks”, including that a “climate of intimidation, of violence” couldn’t be accepted. The European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, stated perpetrators have to be dropped at justice.

“We must protect from attacks all who stand up for our democratic society, no matter what party they belong to,” Von der Leyen, who was in Berlin for a convention, stated. “If they are no longer safe, our democracy is no longer safe either.”

The assault on Giffey got here as state ministers convened an emergency assembly and referred to as for higher police safety of politicians. The variety of verbal and bodily assaults has soared this 12 months with European and native elections on account of happen.

Giffey’s suspected attacker, who was recognized to police for hate crime and unspecified “incidents against state security”, was believed to have psychological well being points, police have stated.

Giffey stated she was “concerned and shaken” by a tradition in which politicians are “increasingly exposed to attacks that are supposedly justified and acceptable … We live in a free and democratic country, in which everyone can be free to express his or her opinions. But there is a clear line – and that is violence against people.”

But, she added, elected officers should be capable to combine with the general public. “I like taking the underground, I like being out and about, I like speaking to people, I like approaching people. And I would like to hold on to this. This is my city,” she stated.

Berlin’s mayor, Kai Wegner, stated anybody who attacked politicians was “attacking our democracy … We will not tolerate this”. He promised to look at “tougher sentences for attacks against politicians”.

Also on Tuesday, two folks have been arrested in Dresden after a 47-year-old Green social gathering member was shoved and spat at whereas placing up marketing campaign posters. The pair had earlier been seen in a group of individuals making Nazi salutes, police stated.

“The perpetrators wanted to publicly declare their own district a no-go area for the Greens,” a Green social gathering spokesperson stated in a assertion. “Their hatred and ruthlessness in front of the camera are repulsive and shocking.”

Last Friday, an MEP from the SDP, Matthias Ecke, wanted an operation for severe accidents sustained when 4 folks attacked him whereas he was placing up EU election posters in the identical jap metropolis, a latest hotspot for assaults on politicians.

Four suspects aged between 17 and 18 – all of whom, in line with German media, are believed to have hyperlinks to a far-right group often called “Elblandrevolte” – are being investigated by police over the assault.

According to provisional police figures, 2,790 crimes have been dedicated in opposition to politicians in Germany in 2023, up from 1,806 the earlier 12 months however down from the 2,840 recorded in 2021, when Germany’s final normal election was held.

Mainstream politicians have blamed the rising political violence on the resurgence of the far-right Alternative for Germany social gathering, which might sweep three state elections this 12 months. The authorities has stated it is going to look into tightening legal guidelines on political attacks.

The AfD’s co-leader, Alice Weidel, has stated makes an attempt to make use of the assault on Ecke for political achieve have been “vile and irresponsible”, and that AfD politicians and members have been additionally continuously attacked.

Reuters and Agence-France Presse contributed to this report