Another German politician was attacked as concerns grew over violence ahead of European elections

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A prominent Berlin politician was violently attacked and suffered injuries to her head and neck, police said Wednesday, the latest in a series of attacks on elected officials that have raised concerns about rising political violence in Germany.

Franziska Giffey, the city’s top economic official, a former mayor and former federal minister, was attacked at an event in a Berlin library on Tuesday by a man who came up from behind and hit her with a bag containing a hard object, according to the police said.

Giffey was taken to a hospital and treated for a headache and neck pain, police said. The Berlin public prosecutor’s office said on Wednesday morning that it had identified the suspected perpetrator, but did not provide any further details.

Berlin Mayor Kai Wegner strongly condemned the attack.

“Anyone who attacks politicians is attacking our democracy,” said Wegner, according to dpa. “We won’t tolerate that. We will oppose all forms of violence, hatred and incitement and protect our democracy.”

On Instagram, Giffey described political violence as “a transgression that we as a society must resolutely confront.”

“We live in a free and democratic country where everyone is free to express their opinions,” she wrote, “and yet there is a clear limit. And that is violence against people who hold a different opinion, for whatever reason, for whatever reason.”

A series of recent attacks has increased political tensions in Germany, where the atmosphere is already tense ahead of this summer’s European elections, in which far-right parties are expected to make gains across the EU.

Climate of fear

Last week, a candidate from Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s party was beaten up during the election campaign in the eastern city of Dresden and had to be operated on.

Police arrested four suspects between the ages of 17 and 18 and said the same group had apparently attacked a Green Party worker minutes earlier. At least one of the youths is believed to have ties to the far right, security officials said.

Also on Tuesday, a 47-year-old Green politician was attacked by two people while hanging election posters in Dresden, the dpa news agency reported.

Both government and opposition parties say their members and supporters have faced a wave of physical and verbal attacks in recent months and have called on police to step up protection for politicians and election rallies.

In February, the German Bundestag said in a report that there were 2,790 attacks on elected representatives in 2023. Representatives of the Green Party were disproportionately affected in 1,219 cases, those of the right-wing extremist party Alternative for Germany (AfD) in 478 cases and members of the SPD in 420 cases.

The country’s vice-chancellor, Robert Habeck, a member of the Green Party, was prevented from leaving a ferry for hours by a group of angry farmers in January, and the vice-president of the German Bundestag, Katrin Göring-Eckardt, also of the Green Party, was prevented from doing so last week prevented from leaving an event in the state of Brandenburg when an angry crowd blocked her car.

Gear up

German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said after a special meeting of the country’s 16 state interior ministers on the issue of violence on Tuesday that possible measures included tightening German criminal law to “punish anti-democratic acts more harshly.”

Many of the incidents took place in the east of the country, where Scholz’s government remains extremely unpopular. According to the Saxon Ministry of the Interior, 112 electoral offenses have been registered so far this year, including 30 against elected officials or representatives of the people.

Mainstream parties accuse the AfD of having ties to violent neo-Nazi groups and fomenting an intimidating political climate. One of their leaders, Björn Hoecke, is currently on trial for using a banned Nazi slogan.

The AfD, which opposes immigration and European integration, is expected to make gains in European polls and in elections in Saxony and two other eastern German states in the fall.