Berlin politician attacked in library – DW – May 8, 2024

The Berlin Minister for Economic Affairs, Energy and Enterprises, Franziska Giffey from Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s SPD faction, was injured in an attack in a library in Berlin’s Rudow district.

A man suddenly “attacked her from behind with a bag full of hard contents and hit her on the head and neck” in a library on Tuesday afternoon, the police said on Wednesday.

Giffey, a former mayor of Berlin and former federal minister, “briefly went to the hospital for outpatient treatment because of headaches and neck pain,” police said The Berlin public prosecutor’s office announced this in a statement.

Berlin prosecutors said they had identified the suspected attacker but gave no details.

The politician herself later said on social media: “After the initial shock, I can say that I’m fine.”

But in her Instagram post, she condemned a “fair game culture in which politically active and committed people in our country are increasingly subjected to seemingly justified and acceptable attacks.”

“They are a transgression that we as a society must resolutely confront,” she wrote.

Pattern of attacks on politicians

In another incident on Tuesday, a 47-year-old Green Party politician in the eastern city of Dresden was threatened and spat on as she hung campaign posters.

A DW reporting team was on site and recorded the incident.

A 34-year-old man and a 24-year-old woman, both German citizens, are being investigated for their alleged involvement, the police said.

They were reportedly among a group of people standing nearby as the politician began her work. This group is also under investigation after they were allegedly heard using an illegal Nazi slogan.

The attacks come just days after attacks on MEP Matthias Ecke and a Green Party campaign worker.

Ecke, a member of the European Parliament for Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s SPD, was attacked by four attackers as he put up EU election posters in Dresden on Friday evening, according to the police.

Politicians condemn “spiral of violence”

Berlin Sports Minister Iris Spranger strongly condemned the attack “on Franziska Giffey and other politicians and election workers, all of whom are committed to a democratic debate.”

“State and federal police are doing everything they can to protect politicians. The Conference of Interior Ministers agreed yesterday in the special session that democracy must be protected more effectively against hate speech and misinformation.”

“Protecting individuals from such attacks under criminal law also serves to protect democracy itself.”

Green Party co-leader Ricarda Lang wrote on

The interior minister of neighboring Brandenburg, Michael Stübgen of the opposition Christian Democrats (CDU), condemned a growing trend of threats against politicians and brutality on social media.

“Unfortunately, we have been watching this spiral for years, and this year we have a spiral of violence with physical attacks on politicians, which worries me greatly,” he told radio station RBB24 Inforadio.

jsi,tj/nm (AFP, dpa)

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