Third German politician attacked in the run-up to the European elections – JURIST

German politician Franziska Giffey was attacked in a local library on Wednesday. The incident comes after other politicians were targeted in the run-up to Germany’s upcoming European elections.

Giffey, Berlin’s senator and SPD member, was visiting a library in Alt-Rudow, which she had previously worked to rebuild, when someone hit her on the head with something heavy. After the attack, Giffey was briefly treated in hospital, but stated on social media that “after the initial shock, I can say I’m fine” and returned to work. Giffey thanked people for their kind messages on social media and also expressed concern about the ongoing attacks:

I am concerned and shocked by the growing “free game culture” in which politically active and committed people in our country are increasingly subjected to attacks that are supposedly justified and acceptable. — We live in a free and democratic country where everyone can express their opinions openly. However, there is a clear limit. And that limit is violence against people who hold a different opinion, for whatever reasons, in whatever form.

This attack is followed by two others against German politicians and campaign workers. Matthias Ecke, the SPD’s top candidate in the European elections, was attacked by four people on May 3rd and was subsequently operated on in hospital. Green Party politician Yvonne Mosler was present on May 9th pushed and spat on while filming with a television crew in Dresden.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz condemned the attacks in a statement published on X (formerly Twitter). Scholz explained:

The attacks on Franziska Giffey and other politicians are outrageous and cowardly. Everyone who is committed deserves respect. Violence does not belong in the democratic debate. Decent and sensible people are clearly against it – and they are in the majority.

These attacks occurred a month before Germany’s European Parliament elections on June 9. German ministers met on Tuesday to assess their responses to these attacks.