LGerman MEP Matthias Ecke was attacked and seriously injured in Dresden. This happened while he was putting up election posters on Friday evening, police said. The elected official from the SPD, the social democratic (left) party of Chancellor Olaf Scholz, was taken to hospital and will have to undergo surgery.
Matthias Ecke, aged 41, was allegedly attacked by a group of four people. Shortly before, a 28-year-old employee of the Green Party (Grünen) was kicked and punched while putting up posters. Authorities suspect the same group of being behind both attacks. Nothing has yet filtered out about the motivations of the authors.
The SPD says it is shocked by the incident. The party branch in Saxony reported that other campaign teams had also been insulted and intimidated while putting up posters. He called the attack on Mr. Ecke an “unmistakable wake-up call” for all Germans. Attacking Democrats is the modus operandi fascists, we can read in a press release.
The police are also investigating another attack targeting two politicians, Kai Gehring and Rolf Fliss (Grünen). This incident took place Thursday evening in Essen, not far from the border with the Netherlands. Fliss, a local politician, was allegedly punched in the face. His attackers then got into a taxi and fled. There would be two attackers.
