NOS News•today, 3:50 PM
A German candidate for the European elections was seriously injured in an attack by unknown persons in Dresden. Matthias Ecke, MEP for the social democratic SPD, was so badly injured that he had to be operated on in hospital, the police said.
Ecke, 41, was attacked by four strangers while he was pasting election posters in Striesen, a densely populated district of Dresden. A few minutes earlier, the group had also attacked a 28-year-old Greens campaign worker, according to police. He was also pasting posters and was injured as he was punched and kicked by the perpetrators.
Because the personal descriptions of witnesses match and the two incidents took place in the same area and shortly after each other, the authorities assume that the perpetrators are the same.
‘Democratic values under attack’
It is the second time in just a few days that politicians have been attacked in Germany. Last Thursday, two members of the Greens were attacked in Essen, in the Ruhr region.
The leaders of the SPD in the eastern state of Saxony, where Dresden is located, have reacted with dismay to the latest attack. “This is an unmistakable alarm signal for all people in this country. Our democratic values are under attack,” said Henning Homann and Kathrin Michel.
According to the party, other poster teams have also recently faced intimidation, the destruction of posters and insults. The Social Democrats in Saxony partly blame the attacks on the “seeds” that they believe the right-wing populist AfD and right-wing extremists have sown. “Their supporters are now completely out of control and apparently regard us as outlaws,” said Homann and Michel.
State Minister Armin Schuster also condemned the attack. “Unfortunately, these types of attacks are not new. What is very worrying is the increasing intensity of attacks at the moment.”
