A wave of attacks in recent days attributed to the extreme right against politicians has become a pattern and worries the German government, one month before the European Parliament elections.
Senator and former mayor of Berlin Franziska Giffey, who belongs to the SPD, Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s party, was hit in the back with a heavy bag while visiting a library in the Rudow neighborhood and had to be taken to the hospital for treatment of head and neck pain.
Last Friday, MEP Mathias Ecke, from the same party, was violently beaten by a group of teenagers while putting up posters in Dresden, Saxony, and had to undergo surgery. Police are investigating four teenagers suspected of the attack.
Another incident in the same city occurred this Tuesday: Yvonna Mosler, politician from the Os Verdes party, was surrounded by a 34-year-old man and a 24-year-old woman, who spat at her while hanging campaign posters.
Both were part of a group that began giving Mosler the Nazi salute.
Party representatives blame the political violence on the growth of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, tipped to win three elections in September, in the states of Thuringia, Saxony and Brandenburg, in the east of the country.
The party has the fight against immigrants as its main platform and was the target of massive protests after the contents of a secret meeting in Potsdam discussing the mass deportation of German citizens of foreign origin.
The AfD has been trying to win over young votersintensifying its campaign on Tik Tok.
In an extensive post on her social media, former mayor Giffey stated that people who are politically active and engaged are increasingly exposed to supposedly justified and acceptable attacks:
“We live in a free and democratic country where everyone can and freely express their opinion. However, there is a clear limit. And that is violence against people who have different opinions, for any reason, in any form.”
O movement against politicians is related to the growth of the German far right in the elections for the European Parliamentwhich will be held between June 6th and 9th in the 27 EU member states.
Research indicates that For the first time in its history, the European Parliament could have a right-wing majoritycoming from a populist coalition made up of Christian Democrats, conservatives and far-right MEPs.
Far-right politician goes on trial for saying Nazi phrase banned in Germany
Tags: Violent wave attacks politicians shakes German government Sandra Cohens blog
