Matthias Ecke had to have surgery after being severely beaten by the black-clad attackers while he was hanging posters in Dresden. A man in Nordhorn struck a politician in the face after throwing eggs at him. A senior in Berlin struck a senator in the head with a bag.
These are just three of the attacks that German politicians have endured in the last week as district council and European Parliament campaigns get underway.
Voting has never come before tensions. Yet, parties and analysts claim that something has changed. As of this week, the Federal Criminal Police Office reported that the number of assaults on politicians that result in physical harm has increased to 22 from 27 for the entire year of 2023.
Additionally, the tone has shifted due to the vitriolic yelling bouts fueled by social media, as well as the divisions and rhetoric of populist politicians.
After he organized a protest against extremism in February, attackers set fire to his residence.
“Giving up is now an option, although I would have never have thought it before.”
INCREASING ATTACKS
Government data shows that since 2019, attacks against politicians in Germany have more than doubled in number, both verbally and physically.
The junior partner in Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s coalition, the Greens, have fared the worst. 1,219 occurrences were reported by its members last year, seven times more than in 2019.
The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party ranks second on that list with 478 incidences, followed by Scholz’s SPD with 420.
AfD rhetoric was held responsible by members of the SPD, the Greens, and other centrist parties for the general deterioration of the atmosphere and the increase in conflicts.
“If you have politicians that officially (say) ‘let’s hunt them down’ … words shape actions,” said Niklas Nienass, a member of the European Parliament for the Greens. Former AfD leader Alexander Gauland declared in a 2017 address that the party would pursue former Chancellor Angela Merkel.
“Nowadays, three men shouting at me that I’m a paedophile or a criminal or ‘we will see where the future leads us’ or we all belong in front of a wall, is almost I would say business as usual,” Nienass said.
The AfD has categorically denied these allegations. Co-leader Alice Weidel stated last week that attacks are often used as a political football, calling such attempts “vile and irresponsible” and pointing out that AfD politicians and members are also routinely targeted.
PRECAUTIONS
Green Party politicians claimed that there was a growing number of remarks with a Nazi tinge to them.
According to Max Reschke, the leader of the Greens in Thuringia, “people will say: go to Buchenwald, for example, or when we get into power we will deal with you.”
Police revealed that one of the four individuals under investigation following the attack on SPD member Matthias Ecke in Dresden on Friday had right-wing materials in his home.
He suffered injuries to his cheekbone and eye socket in the attack, but the same group had earlier attacked another Greens campaigner who was hanging posters.
Speaking of the original Nazi paramilitary wing, “it reminded me of the stormtroopers of the 1930s,” commented Anne-Katrin Haubold, a second Greens campaigner who was there for the incident.
Some claimed that in order to avoid being singled out, they had ceased marking their cars and were not announcing campaign events in advance.
German Green MEP Michael Bloss stated, “It’s not good because our party members feel insecure if we tell them we now need a police protection in order to do political rallies.”
This week, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser declared her desire to see stronger legal sanctions for attacks on politicians and activists as well as more police protection for protestors.
But according to Jochen Kopelke, the chairman of the largest police union in Germany, the cops are already having difficulty keeping up with their current workload.
Campaigning in eastern Germany, politicians announced that they were increasing security workshops and implementing preventative measures of their own.
Luis Schaefer, the leader of the Greens in the eastern town of Gera, stated, “We say we have to have at least three people manning information stands.”
“And if you see someone damaging posters, then don’t put yourself at risk trying to save them.”
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