A well-known politician from Berlin was attacked and hurt in the head and neck, on Wednesday according to police. This is part of a series of attacks on politicians, which is worrying and shows that political violence is increasing in Germany.
Franziska Giffey, a former mayor and ex-federal minister, who is now a top economic official in the city, was attacked at a library event in Berlin on Tuesday. A man came up from behind and hit her with a bag that had something hard inside, according to the police.
Giffey went to the hospital because his head and neck hurt, and the police said he got medical help there. The police took a 74-year-old man into custody and searched his house. They said the police knew who the suspect was, but they didn’t say why the suspect did it.
Berlin Mayor Kai Wegner expressed strong disapproval of the attack.
“Wegner said that if someone attacks politicians, they are also attacking our democracy,” according to the German news agency dpa. “We won’t put up with this. ” We will not support violence, hate, or stirring up trouble, and we will keep our democracy safe.
Giffey said on Instagram that we live in a country where everyone can say what they think because it’s free and democratic. But there is a definite boundary. And that is hurting people who have a different opinion, for any reason, in any way.
“She said we need to stand against them breaking the rules that society has set. ”
Later on Wednesday, Giffey, with bodyguards, talked to reporters in Berlin and said she was feeling okay. She also said that it’s important for leaders to be able to move around freely in the country.
The party of Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s candidate got hurt while campaigning in Dresden last week. They had to have surgery.
The police arrested four people, who are 17 to 18 years old. They believe this group also attacked a Greens party worker before attacking Matthias Ecke. Officials said that at least one of the teenagers is connected to far-right organizations.
On Tuesday, a 47-year-old Green Party member was attacked by two people while hanging election posters in Dresden.
The events have made politicians in Germany very tense.
Both the ruling and opposing political parties are saying that their members and supporters have been experiencing a lot of physical and verbal attacks lately. They want the police to increase their protection for politicians and election rallies.
In February, the German Parliament reported that there were 2,790 attacks on elected officials in 2023. Members of The Greens were affected more than others in 1,219 cases, followed by the far-right AfD in 478 cases and the SPD in 420 cases.
In January, angry farmers stopped the vice chancellor, Robert Habeck, from getting off a ferry for hours. And last week, an angry crowd blocked the car of the vice president of the German Parliament, Katrin Goering-Eckardt, from leaving an event in Brandenburg. Both Habeck and Goering-Eckardt are members of The Greens party.
Nancy Faeser, Germany’s federal interior minister, said that they had a meeting with the country’s 16 state interior ministers to talk about violence. They are thinking about making the laws stricter to punish people who do things that go against democracy.
A lot of bad things have happened in the eastern part of the country, where Scholz’s government is not liked by many people. The Interior Ministry in Saxony has reported 112 crimes related to the election, including 30 against elected officials.
Major political parties have said that AfD is connected to violent neo-Nazi groups and is creating a scary political atmosphere. One of its leaders, Bjoern Hoecke, is currently in trouble for using a Nazi slogan that is not allowed.
The political party Alternative for Germany, which is against immigration and European unity, is likely to win more votes in the European elections and also in the elections in Saxony and two other eastern German states in the fall.