BERLIN Green MP Marie Kollenrott was slightly injured last Saturday in Lower Saxony when a 66-year-old man punched him three times in the upper body. Before that, the man had raged about the politics of the Greens.
SPD party election activist in Dresden Matthias Corner was beaten to hospital and in Berlin an SPD senator Franziska Giffey was beaten with a hard object to the head and neck. A representative of the far-right AfD party in Nordhorn Holger Kühnlenz were thrown with eggs.
These are just some of the incidents from May. In Germany, there have been clearly more attacks than before against candidates of both the left and the right during the ongoing EU election campaigns.
In five years, political violence has tripled, the head of the Federal Criminal Police Office Holger Münch told a press conference in Berlin last week.
– The extreme right is and remains the biggest threat to our free democratic society, Münch summed up.
Extremist and religious ideologies from abroad are also on the rise. According to Münch, the situation in the Middle East directly affects radicalization in Germany.
– Anti-Jewish attitudes, street protests and political crime are increasing. The possibilities for escalation are great.
In Münch’s opinion, the far right in particular is now responsible for promoting a culture of factual discussion. AfD is building its support extensively online.
– Such an extensive online presence can be used either to calm or to provoke. Many AfD publications are not reassuring, Münch shaped the Taz magazine in the interview.
The number of political attacks is already approaching such limits that democracy is suffering.
– If ten percent of civil servants and elected politicians announce that they are considering resigning, or almost ten percent no longer want to stand as a candidate due to fear of violence, there is too much anger, says Münch.
Opponents have become enemies
The extremes of politics are getting stronger on both the right and the left. The language of politics has become more violent. There are clearly more attacks on a person and verbal and physical violence than before.
The problem has become that political opponents are not discussed and are content to disagree, but are made enemies, party secretary of the SPD Kevin Kuehnert reflects in an interview with .
“Unfortunately, there are people who think it’s okay to shout or rage at a politician or attack him.
According to Kühnert, the phenomenon has already existed before this spring’s EU election campaign, but now it has reached its peak. He himself has also been attacked at political events.
– For example, one woman tried to break an egg on my head. Of course I’m not afraid of eggs, but it could easily have been a knife. If you want to be safe, you should always hide behind police or security walls, but what kind of democracy would that be, Kühnert asks.
Kühnert says that he is especially worried about those who work voluntarily in politics.
– We in the Bundestag [Saksan parlamentissa] we can do our work under the protection of official authority, but many volunteers give up because they can’t bear to be the object of hatred anymore, says Kühnert.
In Kühnert’s opinion, concrete ways to protect politicians from violence should not be considered first. If politicians are isolated from the people, it weakens democracy.
– Instead, a political atmosphere should be created where attacking politicians is no longer okay.
SPD increased security measures
According to Kühnert, one reason for the increase in anger may be that people no longer have a common basis of facts. They use different channels when forming their worldview and following society.
– Some people no longer follow serious media or fact-based sources, but fake news, which can contain the most imaginative things. Then maybe it’s no wonder that you can also get it into your head to fight the system with violence, says Kühnert.
After Matthias Ecke was hospitalized as a result of the violence, SPD activists have stopped, for example, hanging election posters at night. They tend to move around the city in larger groups than before. Even small election events are reported to the police in advance more sensitively than before.
– In Germany, there are thousands of people on the move now in election campaigns, thousands of election booths. The police cannot protect everyone, that would be an absurd demand, says Kühnert.
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