BERLIN (AP) – A prominent Berlin politician was violently assaulted and suffered head and neck injuries in the latest attack on an elected official, police said Wednesday in Germany. There are growing concerns about the rise in political violence in the United States.
Franziska Giffy Police say Berlin’s top economic official, a former mayor and a former federal minister, was attacked by a man who approached him from behind during an event at a Berlin library on Tuesday, leaving him with a bag containing a hard device. He announced that he had been beaten.
Giffy was taken to the hospital and treated for head and neck pain, police said. A 74-year-old man was taken into custody and police searched his home, police said. He said the suspect was known to police, but did not provide a motive.
Berlin Mayor Kai Wegner strongly condemned the attack.
“Anyone who attacks politicians is attacking our democracy,” Wegner said, according to German news agency dpa. “We will not tolerate this. We oppose all forms of violence, hatred and incitement and will defend our democracy.”
“While we live in a free and democratic country where everyone is free to express their opinions, there are still clear limitations,” Giffey wrote on Instagram. It is violence against people who have
“They are a violation of boundaries and as a society we must firmly oppose them,” she said.
Late Wednesday, protected by several bodyguards, Giffey told reporters at a public event in Berlin that she was feeling well but that “we can live in a country where socially and politically responsible people can live in peace. We have to do that,” he said. Move freely. ”
last week, candidate from the prime minister’s party Olaf Scholz He was beaten in the eastern city of Dresden during an election campaign next month. European Parliament elections And then I had to undergo surgery.
Police said they had detained four suspects aged between 17 and 18 and believed the same group had attacked a Green Party official minutes before attacking Matthias Ecke. At least one teenager Security officials say they are believed to have ties to far-right groups.
Also on Tuesday, dpa reported that a 47-year-old Green Party politician was attacked by two people while displaying election posters in Dresden.
The incident heightened political tensions in Germany.
Both the government and opposition parties say party members and supporters have been subjected to a wave of physical and verbal attacks in recent months, and have called on police to step up security for politicians and election rallies. .
In February, the German parliament announced in a report that there were a total of 2,790 attacks on elected representatives in 2023. Members of the Green Party were disproportionately affected with 1,219 cases and the far-right party Alternative for Germany (AfD) with 478 cases. 420 cases and SPD representatives.
In January, the country’s deputy prime minister, Robert Habeck, a member of the Green Party, was prevented from disembarking a ferry for several hours by a group of angry farmers, and Germany’s deputy speaker, Katrin Göring-Eckert, also a member of the Green party. Greens was prevented from leaving an event in Brandenburg last week when his car was blocked by an angry crowd.
Germany’s criminal law could be strengthened to “punish anti-democratic acts more harshly,” German Federal Interior Minister Nancy Feser said after a special meeting of the country’s 16 state interior ministers on the issue of violence on Tuesday. He said it was a measure.
Many of the incidents occurred in the eastern part of the former communist country, where the Scholz government remains deeply unpopular. Saxony’s interior ministry announced that it had registered 112 election-related crimes so far this year, 30 of which were against elected officials and members.
Mainstream political parties accuse the AfD of having ties to violent neo-Nazi groups. foster a coercive political climate. One of its leaders, Bjorn Hocke, Currently in court for using banned Nazi slogans.
Alternative for Germany, which campaigns against immigration and European integration, is expected to gain support not only in autumn elections in Saxony and two other eastern German states, but also in European opinion polls. ing.
