Three young people suspected of being involved in the violent attack in Germany on a Social Democratic MEP have been identified, authorities announced on Monday, after the confession of a first suspect. Head of the SPD list in the Saxony region (east) for the European elections, Matthias Ecke was violently attacked by four strangers in a street in Dresden on Friday evening, provoking a wave of indignation in the country.
A 17-year-old boy surrendered to authorities on Sunday, claiming to be one of the perpetrators of the attack. Investigation “made it possible to designate two other defendants” and one “fourth suspect could also be identified on Sunday”, announced the Dresden public prosecutor’s office and the Saxony judicial police in a press release. Their homes were searched on Sunday, “evidence has been seized and is being analyzed”, added the two authorities. The four suspects are “young men of German nationality, aged 17 or 18”they further specify.
Increase in violence against elected officials
Their degree of involvement in the events has not yet been determined, nor has the motive for this attack which occurs in a context of increasing violence against political representatives in Germany. On Saturday, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz condemned the attack on Ecke, a member of his party, assuring that the attacks against elected officials “threatened” democracy.
Seriously injured, the 41-year-old elected official had to be hospitalized and operated on: his cheekbone and the socket of one of his eyes were broken by a punch, media reported. Just before this attack, a 28-year-old man putting up posters for the Green party, in the same street, was also beaten. “with punches and kicks”according to the police, who suspect the same group of attackers.
The Minister of Justice of Saxony, Katja Meier, announced that she wanted to increase the penalties for attacks against elected officials and civil servants. According to provisional police figures, 2,790 crimes were committed in 2023 against political representatives in Germany compared to 1,806 the previous year, but 2,840 in 2021, the year of legislative elections.
