Suspect arrested in recent attack on German politicians

German police on Wednesday arrested a 74-year-old man suspected of hitting a former Berlin mayor in the head – the latest in a series of attacks against politicians in Germany.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz described the attacks on politicians as “outrageous and cowardly” and emphasized that violence does not belong in a democratic debate.

Franziska Giffey was in a library Tuesday afternoon when the suspect came up to her from behind and hit her in the head and neck with a bag full of hard objects, police said.

Giffey, now Berlin’s economics minister and SPD member, was treated in hospital for minor injuries.

The detained suspect was previously known to investigators for “state security and hate crimes,” police said, adding that they were investigating the motive for the attack.

Prosecutors also considered whether the man should be committed to a psychiatric hospital based on indications that he may be mentally ill.

According to preliminary police figures, 2,790 crimes were committed against politicians in Germany in 2023, after 1,806 in the previous year.

Still, there were fewer than 2,840 in 2021, when the last general election was held.

Giffey said she felt good after the initial shock.

However, she said she was “concerned and shocked by a growing ‘freedom culture’ in which people who are politically active in our country are increasingly exposed to attacks that are supposedly justified and acceptable.”

“We live in a free and democratic country where everyone can express their opinions,” she wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

“But there is a clear line – and that is violence against people,” she added.

Berlin’s acting mayor Kai Wegner said anyone who attacks politicians is “attacking our democracy” and announced that he would consider “tougher penalties for attacks on politicians.”

– Nazi greetings –

Politicians, particularly from Scholz’s SPD or coalition partner the Greens, have faced increasing attacks in recent months.

Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck of the Green Party was prevented from getting off a ferry by a group of protesters earlier this year.

Another prominent Green Party politician, Katrin Göring-Eckardt, was prevented from leaving an event in the state of Brandenburg by protesters last week by surrounding her car and starting to hit it.

Giffey’s attack also came just days after a MEP, also from the SPD, had to be hospitalized last week after four people attacked him as he hung EU election posters in the eastern city of Dresden.

Matthias Ecke, 41, had to undergo surgery because of the serious injuries Scholz suffered in the attack, which Scholz denounced as a threat to democracy. Four suspects between the ages of 17 and 18 were investigated over the incident.

According to German media, all four are said to have connections to the right-wing extremist group “Elblandrevolte”.

Dresden is a hotspot for attacks on politicians, and another case was reported on Tuesday.

A politician, who according to the police was just a 47-year-old from the Green Party, was threatened and spat at.

She was putting up campaign posters for the European elections when a man came up to her, pushed her aside and tore down two posters.

He insulted and threatened the politician, while a woman joined in and spat on the victim, police said.

Officers arrested both suspects, police added, identifying them as a 34-year-old German man and a 24-year-old woman.

Both were in a group that was standing on the site and had just begun the forbidden Hitler salute when the politician began hanging up the posters.

hmn/sr/jm