Germany sees ‘Sturmtrupps’ advancing behind attack on SPD politician in Dresden

The attack was immediately universally condemned. The brutal violence against Ecke has drawn attention to a problem that is much broader than this one incident. According to the almost unanimous reactions, Germany is in danger of becoming a country where the extreme right is not only growing, but is also becoming increasingly bold in its actions. A 17-year-old boy reportedly reported himself to the police on Sunday and confessed that he had knocked down Ecke.

The authoritative magazine Der Spiegel wonders whether there are ‘goons going through the city who target members of certain parties’ and whether those parties can still move freely. Albrecht Pallas, chairman of the SPD in Dresden, said on Saturday after visiting the victim in the hospital: “Enemies of democracy now apparently have the feeling that they can just do something like that.”

‘Absolutely disturbing’

Dresden is located in the state of Saxony, where 112 cases of politically motivated violence have been reported in recent months. The state’s Interior Minister Armin Schuster called these figures “absolutely disturbing” on Saturday: “These are attacks on the core of democracy.”

The Saxon Minister of Economic Affairs Martin Dulig even uses the word Sturmtruppsstormtroopers, in a quote in which he seems to make a direct comparison with the times before the Second World War: ‘If there is Sturmtrupps march through Saxony and intimidate people, and sow fear and hatred, then this must be stopped very quickly.’

The duo chairmen of the SPD in Saxony, Henning Homann and Kathrin Michel, call the gang ‘the means of power of fascists’. They point an accusing finger at the largest far-right party, the AfD: ‘The seeds that the AfD and other far-right parties have sown are now germinating.’

Ecke (41) is number ten on the SPD’s national European list, and therefore the highest-placed candidate from the state of Saxony. He has been a member of the Social Democratic Group in the European Parliament since 2022. In his campaign he often focuses on the far-right AfD. That party is doing especially well in the poorer eastern part of the country, which also includes Saxony and Dresden.

Right spectrum

Ecke regularly lashes out at the AfD on Instagram. The AfD’s leading candidate for the European elections, Maximilian Krah, should step down, according to Ecke, after an ex-employee was recently arrested for spying for China. Ecke accuses the AfD of espionage, corruption and treason.

On Friday evening, the SPD member wanted to stick posters for the European elections in Schandauer Strasse, in the Dresden district of Striesen. At about half past ten, four men dressed in black emerged from the dark and started hitting and kicking him. According to police, they were disguised, but were probably young men aged 17 to 20, and from ‘the right-wing spectrum’, reported Der Spiegel.

They literally hit and kicked Ecke into the hospital: ‘krankenhausreif‘, thus Der Spiegel. It turned out that he had been so badly injured that, according to his party, an ’emergency operation’ was necessary. The reports do not indicate the exact nature of his injuries.

Ecke was not the only one who was jumped by the foursome on Friday evening. A few minutes earlier, in the same street, a Greens campaign worker, who also wanted to put up election posters, had been kicked and beaten. In this case too, the men who attacked him acted like savages. Klemens Schneider, the local chairman of the Greens: ‘The attacked person was kicked in the stomach when he was already on the ground.’

Carefully

The authorities assume that both cases involve the same group of men. The 17-year-old who reported to the police on Sunday was arrested Bild Zeitung brought by his mother. The news channel NTV reports that according to the police, the boy would not be detained and was allowed to go home after interrogation because there would be no danger of him going into hiding. The police could not say anything about the three other suspects on Sunday. The investigation into them continues.

Politicians and media in Germany wonder what effect the intimidating gangs will have on democracy. Will politicians still dare to go on campaign? Parties hastily declare their solidarity in the name of democracy. The liberal FDP, the Christian CDU, the social democratic SPD and the Greens are uniting against the attacks. On Saturday evening, there were calls for solidarity demonstrations in various German cities.

Ecke and the SPD are showing themselves to be combative. Dresden chairman of the SPD Albrecht Pallas: “We are not shocked, we are furious and all the more determined.” But they are also careful, it turns out Der Spiegel. According to Pallas, campaign workers will from now on receive the urgent advice: ‘Only place posters during the day, and with at least four people.’