German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and EU leaders on Saturday denounced a recent spate of attacks on politicians in Germany, including one that sent a member of the European Parliament to hospital with serious injuries.
Matthias Ecke, 41, a member of Scholz’s Social Democratic Party, was hit and kicked on Friday by a group of four people while putting up posters in Dresden, the capital of the eastern state of Saxony, police said.
A party source said his injuries would require an operation.
Photo: AFP
Shortly before, what appeared to be the same group attacked a 28-year-old campaigner for the Greens, who was also putting up posters, police said, although his injuries were not as severe.
“Democracy is threatened by this kind of thing,” Scholz told a convention of European socialists in Berlin.
The attacks exemplify increased violence in Germany in the past few years, often from the far-right, targeting especially leftist politicians. The German intelligence agency, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, domestic intelligence agency says far-right extremism is the biggest threat to German democracy.
Saxony Minister President Michael Kretschmer said such aggression and attempts at intimidation recalled the darkest era of German history, a reference to Nazi rule.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, a former German minister, and European Parliament President Roberta Metsola both condemned the attack on Ecke.
“The culprits must be brought to account,” Von der Leyen wrote on X.
German Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser vowed “tough action and further protective measures” in response to the attacks.
The heads of the Social Democratic Party in Saxony, Henning Homann and Kathrin Michel, issued a statement in which they blamed the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party for the rise in violence.
“These people and their supporters bear responsibility for what is happening in this country,” they said.
The AfD did not immediately reply to a request for comment. The party says it is the victim of a campaign by the media and political establishment.
The AfD has seen a surge in support in the past year take it to second place in opinion polls nationwide. It is particularly strong in the eastern states of Saxony, Thuringia and Brandenburg, where surveys suggest it could come first in regional elections in September.
BACKLASH: The National Party quit its decades-long partnership with the Liberal Party after their election loss to center-left Labor, which won a historic third term Australia’s National Party has split from its conservative coalition partner of more than 60 years, the Liberal Party, citing policy differences over renewable energy and after a resounding loss at a national election this month. “Its time to have a break,” Nationals leader David Littleproud told reporters yesterday. The split shows the pressure on Australia’s conservative parties after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s center-left Labor party won a historic second term in the May 3 election, powered by a voter backlash against US President Donald Trump’s policies. Under the long-standing partnership in state and federal politics, the Liberal and National coalition had shared power
NO EXCUSES: Marcos said his administration was acting on voters’ demands, but an academic said the move was emotionally motivated after a poor midterm showing Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr yesterday sought the resignation of all his Cabinet secretaries, in a move seen as an attempt to reset the political agenda and assert his authority over the second half of his single six-year term. The order came after the president’s allies failed to win a majority of Senate seats contested in the 12 polls on Monday last week, leaving Marcos facing a divided political and legislative landscape that could thwart his attempts to have an ally succeed him in 2028. “He’s talking to the people, trying to salvage whatever political capital he has left. I think it’s
Polish presidential candidates offered different visions of Poland and its relations with Ukraine in a televised debate ahead of next week’s run-off, which remains on a knife-edge. During a head-to-head debate lasting two hours, centrist Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski, from Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s governing pro-European coalition, faced the Eurosceptic historian Karol Nawrocki, backed by the right-wing populist Law and Justice party (PiS). The two candidates, who qualified for the second round after coming in the top two places in the first vote on Sunday last week, clashed over Poland’s relations with Ukraine, EU policy and the track records of their
UNSCHEDULED VISIT: ‘It’s a very bulky new neighbor, but it will soon go away,’ said Johan Helberg of the 135m container ship that run aground near his house A man in Norway awoke early on Thursday to discover a huge container ship had run aground a stone’s throw from his fjord-side house — and he had slept through the commotion. For an as-yet unknown reason, the 135m NCL Salten sailed up onto shore just meters from Johan Helberg’s house in a fjord near Trondheim in central Norway. Helberg only discovered the unexpected visitor when a panicked neighbor who had rung his doorbell repeatedly to no avail gave up and called him on the phone. “The doorbell rang at a time of day when I don’t like to open,” Helberg told television
RSS