The Chancellor’s appeal came after four attackers brutally attacked a politician who was campaigning in East Germany.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz has called on people to work together against right-wing extremist activism after a politician was attacked while campaigning for the European elections.
Matthias Ecke was seriously injured and taken to hospital for treatment after four assailants attacked him late Friday evening as he was hanging campaign posters in the eastern German city of Dresden, police said.
The 41-year-old is a member of the center-left Social Democrats (SPD) and a current member of the European Parliament.
“Democracy is threatened by something like this, and that’s why shrugging your shoulders is never an option,” Scholz said on Saturday during a conference on the upcoming European elections in the German capital Berlin. “We have to take action against this together.”
The fact that such things happen also has something to do with the speeches that are given and the moods created, said Scholz, referring to the right-wing populist Alternative for Germany (AfD).
Shortly before Ecke’s attack, the same group apparently attacked a 28-year-old Green Party activist who was also hanging posters, police said, although his injuries were not as serious.
“The constitutional state must and will respond to this with tough action and further protective measures for the democratic forces in our country,” Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said in a statement, saying the attack on Ecke was also an “attack on democracy.”
“Extremists and Populists”
European Parliament President Roberta Metsola was one of many European politicians who sympathized with Ecke, saying in a post on X that she was “horrified by the brutal attack.”
Nationwide, the number of attacks on politicians from parties represented in parliament has doubled since 2019, according to government figures published in January.
Faeser said the verbal hostility of extremists and populists toward Democratic politicians was partly to blame for the rise in violence.
The German domestic secret service BfV says right-wing extremism is the biggest threat to German democracy.
The strong support for the right-wing extremist AfD last year pushed it to second place in nationwide polls.
The AfD is particularly strong in the eastern states of Saxony, Thuringia and Brandenburg. Polls suggest it will come first in all three regions in regional elections this September.
According to the government, politicians from the Green Party face the greatest aggression. Attacks on them have increased sevenfold since 2019, to 1,219 last year. AfD politicians suffered 478 attacks and the SPD was in third place with 420.
Theresa Ertel, a Green Party candidate in local elections in Thuringia this month, said she knew party members who no longer wanted to run because of the aggressive political atmosphere.