By Oliver von Riegen and Anne-Béatrice Clasmann, dpa
BERLIN – German federal and state interior ministers on Tuesday agreed on the need for tougher penalties for violent crimes targeting politicians and volunteers ahead of upcoming election campaigns.
The ministers discussed policing measures and weighed tightening criminal law in talks called after an attack on a German lawmaker last week.
In order to send “a very clear signal,” the security authorities and also the judiciary must ensure swift and consistent proceedings and penalties, Germany’s Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said on Tuesday evening after a video conference arranged following the incident in Dresden.
If criminal law had to be tightened further for this, she said she would seek dialogue with Justice Minister Marco Buschmann.
Matthias Ecke, who represents the Social Democrats (SPD) in the European Parliament, was brutally beaten by four assailants on Friday evening while hanging campaign posters in the eastern German city of Dresden.
State interior ministers joined in their call on the federal ministry to for tougher penalties for attacks on politicians and election workers to protect those working at local authority level in particular from threats and violence.
Statistics show a rising number of offences against lawmakers, according to Faeser. She said there were 2,710 offences against elected representatives in 2023, a 53% increase compared to the previous year.
“Attacks on AfD politicians are also unacceptable,” she said, referring to the far-right Alternative for Germany. She denigrated an “escalation of anti-democratic violence.”
Faeser warned of those especially from the far-right fringe, who are becoming increasingly “unrestrained and unscrupulous” in their attacks and defamation of people and demanded a halt to the spiral of hatred and violence.
German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier called for solidarity for those involved in promoting democracy. “Democracy needs a political culture that is free from hatred and agitation and even more so free from violence,” he said in Brandenburg.
The security authorities must do everything necessary to track down the criminals and the courts must bring the perpetrators to justice, Steinmeier said.
“But this also means that we must stand behind those who fulfil their responsibilities as democrats and show our complete disgust for those who violate democratic rules.”
Meanwhile in the eastern German city of Dresden on Tuesday evening, a 47-year-old politician from the Green Party was attacked by two people while putting up election posters.
Shortly afterwards, police officers arrested a 24-year-old woman and a 34-year-old man as suspects, Dresden police said. A police spokesman did not initially identify the attackers.
The male attacker pushed the politician aggressively around 6:50 pm (1650 GMT), and insulted and threatened her, police said. He is also said to have torn down two election posters.
The 24-year-old woman reportedly joined in and spat at the politician, who was accompanied by volunteers and a film crew. The police confronted the two attackers in the immediate vicinity.
The 34-year-old man is being investigated for assault, threats, insults and damage to property. The 24-year-old woman is being investigated for assault.
Because the two had allegedly been standing with a group chanting Nazi slogans, they are also being investigated for using symbols of unconstitutional organizations. The suspects were not taken into custody, the police spokesman said.
