Breaking: Leading German EU Parliamentary candidate attacked while campaigning | DW News

we’ve been following some breaking news from Germany a Social Democrat politician has been attacked while putting up campaign posters in the eastern city of Dresden Matias eka is a candidate in the upcoming European Parliament elections party officials say he was seriously injured and requires surgery according to police eka was allegedly hurt by four attackers who had earlier beaten up a green party campaign worker we’ll bring you more updates as the story develops for more I’m joined Now by DW political correspondent Alex garst uh Alex there’s very little information right now but what more can you tell us about the attack yeah the attack happened already yesterday in the evening suspects have approached Matias eka the leading candidate for the SPD social Democrats in Saxony they started to insult him and then attacked him for no reason the suspects used massive violence you’ve just mentioned it he had to undergo emergency surgery and he will have to stay in hospital until coming week um according to eyewitness also we can say or we we are hearing that those suspects that you have mentioned that they could possibly be linked to farri extremist groups but this is not yet confirmed by any Authority so we’re just relying on eyewitness reports there um and very close uh what you Al also just have mentioned there was another attack against a young man campaigning for the green party um it was luckily a less severe attack but according to police it is likely that both attacks attacks were conducted by the same group of suspects uh now this attack is not the first one on politicians in recent weeks in the country can you tell us a little bit more about that yes indeed uh we’ve been seeing an increase of violence against politicians just in Saxony alone 30 cases of violence against politicians have been reported just this year U more prominent cases of of violence and also harassments include cases of the of the German economy Minister Robert habc who was blocked from leaving a ferry a couple of months back and just earlier this week um something very similar happened to the vice president of the German Parliament Kine guring Ard so we’re seeing these attempts to intimidate members of democratic parties which is also so why um members of all Democratic parties are condemning these attacks in general and yesterday’s attack in particular with party members of Matias Z from the social Democrats even blaming at least indirectly the far-right afd party for their constant use of hate speech over the last months and years and also the prime minister of sexy the conservative politician Michel ketma he was quick to condemn these attacks yesterday and said that attacks like these remind him of Germany’s darkest eras Alex gar thank you for the update

A Social Democrat politician has been attacked while putting up campaign posters in the eastern city of Dresden. Matthias Ecke is a candidate in the upcoming European Parliament elections. Party officials say he was seriously injured and required surgery. According to police, Ecke was allegedy hurt by four attackers who had earlier assaulted a Green Party campaign worker.

0:00 SPD politician Matthias Ecke attacked
0:33 Alex Gerst, DW Political Correspondent

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49 comments

  2. They were quick to divert the attackers to the far Right, without evidence. If I was to bet, I'd go with the far Left. Democrats in Europe are closer to Center Right than Left.

  3. The puppet of China should do introspection about its law and order situation before lecturing other countries especially enemies of China like India and Taiwan.

  12. Neo-fascism won't stop. We need laws to stop the corporations financing them all over Europe. In some countries like Spain those groups crimes have impunity before the spanish police and judges while democratic politicians are subject to lawfare to destroy them. Follow the money behind.
    Shame on Ursula Von der Leyen negociating whit them as if they were democratic!

  18. As we all know, it wasn't a Baptist group that attacked him yet the end result of these violent outrages will be our government's demand for extra powers to surveil both the innocent and these extremists, thus the loss of our liberties.

  22. Yikes, politicians are condemning these far-right attacks? Did they shake their heads, wave an index finger and look disapprovingly? I'm sure that will teach these bad, bad boys a lesson and the attacks will stop immediately.

  30. The far right should be completely barred from politice.
    Their endgoal is violent and have shown time and again throught modern history that they are willing to use violence to gain power if they believe if it can create an opening for them to take over and enact their violent policies.
    Simply put: you don't let anti-democratic movements have a table in a democracy in the same way you don't have a debate with a pathogen.

  42. Rather shocking to hear (Tagesschau) that this has happened before against all parties, but esp the Greens. Dutch politicians have received threats, but we haven’t sunken this far

  43. The german memes about A.H. being the most left-leaning person in Sachsen are starting to ring truer by the day 😮‍💨

  45. Lovely, WTH is wrong with people? Chill folks, anyone is allowed to campaign for any party and hold their own beliefs.

  48. … AfD politicians are traditionally most affected by politically motivated violance which is widely ignored by German mainstream media …

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