Update: German politician left seriously injured following attack | DW News

Update: German politician left seriously injured following attack | DW News

a leading politician from Germany’s social Democrats has been attacked while campaigning in the eastern city of Dresden Matias eer is a candidate in the upcoming European Parliament elections for Chancellor Olaf Schultz’s Center left SPD he was attacked while putting up campaign posters party officials say eka was seriously injured and required surgery well chancell Olaf Schultz has condemned the attack as a threat to democracy we must never allow ourselves to become comfortable with acts of violence like these we must never shrug our shoulders when they happen here or there such as when green party candidates were attacked recently or when we see this happening against local politicians or the mayors of small towns democracy is threatened by acts like these and that’s why shrugging them off is never an option we must stand up together Olaf Schultz there well earlier I spoke with Johannes kis he studies right-wing extremism here in Germany at this point there is no official confirmation yet that the attack was politically motivated but I asked him what he made of the information so far well the signs are pointing at political motivated violence and there have been uh many more instances um in the state of Saxony um most of them not as violently not as br as this one um but this is why um political motivation is um yeah most likely now johanes you just mentioned it there Germany has seen a number of far-right attacks recently and in recent years and the domestic intelligence agency to says that far-right extremism is the biggest threat to German democracy if you were to explain what Germany’s political climate looks like right now what would you say well there was already a peak in 20156 um during the um summer of migration where um we had a large influx of immigrants um to Germany to Europe and um this sparked a a violent climate among um right-wing extremist and we now see a a similar wave uh that started last year mobilization based on um different issues actually uh the war in Ukraine but also um migration again the BR uh br but topic of the extreme right and um it looks like that the elections we have state elections coming up in sex um in September and now the European elections and um the local um elections in um in uh June and it looks like that the extreme far right is using this as a um acceleration um for for their mobilization just uh let’s flesh this out a little bit what is the effect of all this or the potential effect of all this on on Democracy well um a part of this uh very now famous um um attack because it’s a um leading figure a leading politician of the SPD we have seen in recent years um increasing numbers of attacks on um mayors of small towns that usually don’t get paid for this kind of jobs um of um um yeah uh Community leaders in small cities um all coming from the extreme right and this put puts um democracy on the local level where you know people train democracy they learn democracy it’s their neighborhood where they um experience democracy uh comes under threat and this is exactly what um neo-nazis and the extreme right want they want to on the local level carve out um destroy democracy and um I think the uh the threat has never been um uh greater uh since reunification and um the uh Stark words by the chancellor are are very much um appreciated So based on everything you say could I take it to mean that you you don’t believe authorities in Germany are doing enough to tackle to tackle this threat we do have uh certain problems um regarding the speed that law enforcement um uh shows when it comes to dealing with right-wing extremist violence and you know if you uh convict somebody after two years um also the the judge will say okay this has been two years ago uh let’s go with six months on on parole uh instead of a fast conviction with uh prison time and this happens again and again it has um different reasons there’s uh not enough focus on right-wing extremist violence but it’s also um part of it is also just um uh yeah not enough stuff um in the law enforcement um Services I am joined Now by DW’s political correspondent Alex Garrett uh Alex um the the chancellor uh has said that this is quote a threat to democracy could you briefly run us through what actually happened and how did this attack unfold he was out on campaigning event for his Social Democratic party when four suspects have approached him they started to insult him and then they attacked him for no reason he now will have to undergo a surgery and will have to stay in hospital at least until coming week until the coming week and the suspects are still on the Run according to an eyewitness report those four suspects from their appearance could be linked to farri extremist groups but this is not yet confirmed by any Authority or the police and very close to the attack yesterday actually another physical attack has happened uh targeting um a young man campaigning for the green party um it was luckily sever attack but the police say that it is likely that both attacks were conducted by the same suspects and given the Chancellor’s comments about a threat to to uh democracy are we seeing a shift in Germany’s political climate well maybe it’s not a shift but a sad climax of development that we have been seeing over the last months and years uh just in Saxony alone we have 30 reported cases of violence against politicians uh just this year and this is part of a bigger Trend in Germany in some districts of Germany violent violent attacks against politicians they have tripled since 2020 harassment also harassment of politicians is also on the rise uh with the most prominent example being the case of German economy Minister Robert harck uh when he was blocked from leaving a ferry by aggressive farmers and something very similar happened earlier this week to the vice president of the German Parliament Kine guring eard when leaving um campaigning event let’s not forget Germany has also a very recent history of farride violence against politicians one even mounting in the killing of a mayor Val lkin 20 2019 excuse me from the conservative party um tendency makes yesterday’s case so urgent and particular because it really raises the question how to protect politicians campaigning for the upcoming elections the German interior Minister nany FEA said that if it is true that there is a political motivation behind yesterday’s attack against Matias eka then it would open a new dimension of anti-democratic violence and even the German Chancellor Olaf Schulz um we we heard him earlier he has said this is a threat to democracy and he also agreed basically to what some members of the Social Democratic parties have said when they were blaming also the farri right D party at least being indirectly responsible for this attack because of their constant use of hate speech against political competitors DW’s Alex gar thank you very much

A leading politician from Germany’s Social Democrats has been attacked while campaigning in the eastern city of Dresden.

Matthias Ecke is a candidate in the upcoming European Parliament elections for Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s center-left SPD. He was attacked while putting up campaign posters. Party officials say Ecke was seriously injured and required surgery. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has condemned the attack as a threat to democracy.

Chapters:
0:00 The attack in Dresden
1:18 Johannes Kiess, Extremism and democracy expert, University of Leipzig
4:56 Alex Gerst, DW Political Correspondent

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