A 17-year-old youth reported himself to the police in Dresden last night, claiming that he had beaten Social Democracy (SPD) MEP Matthias Ecke on Friday. This was reported by the DPA agency. Four assailants attacked Ecke while he was putting up posters as part of a campaign before the European Parliament elections. On Saturday, a trio of attackers attacked the Alternative for Germany (AfD) stand in Dresden.
Police said the youth had no history of trouble with the law. She will investigate him at large, because according to her there is no danger that he will try to escape. Police are still looking for other attackers. These people are also suspected of having also attacked a Greens campaign assistant who, like Ecke, was putting up election posters on Friday evening. Witnesses estimated they were between 17 and 20 years old. According to one of the witnesses, it was a supporter of the right-wing scene. The seriously injured Ecke is in the hospital, where he had to undergo an operation.
“The attack on Matthias Ecke is an unmistakable alarm signal for all people in this country. Our democratic values are under attack,” the chairmen of the SPD’s Saxon branch, Henning Homann and Kathrin Michelová, said in a statement, according to Politico.
The SPD blamed supporters of the right-wing AfD party for the attack on Ecke. “Their supporters are now completely uninhibited and apparently the Democrats see us as fair game,” she said in a statement. Saxony is one of the AfD’s political strongholds.
On Saturday afternoon, three people attacked a polling booth of the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) in the Saxon capital. According to the police, two 23-year-old women and a 28-year-old man damaged a blackboard, posters and a table during the attack on the AfD stand. Police arrested the suspects based on information from witnesses. They will be investigated for damaging another’s property.
The police also informed that a group of about 20 youths damaged election posters of various political parties on Sunday night. Following a report from a witness, the police caught a 17-year-old youth in the act of destroying a poster of the Left party. DPA writes that it happened in the same street in which attackers attacked Ecke and a person helping the Green campaign on Friday.
Friday’s attacks were condemned by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, and because of the incidents, demonstrations were called for today in Dresden and Berlin.
Voters in Germany will decide on their next representatives in the European Parliament on June 9. Representatives of both the ruling and opposition parties warned that their members were facing a wave of physical and verbal attacks and called on the police to strengthen the protection of politicians at election rallies.
Tags: Street battles preelection Dresden AfD stand attacked SPD candidate beaten
