The attack took place on Friday evening in connection with a group putting up election posters ahead of the upcoming local and EU elections. Three to four unknown assailants first appeared and began harassing the group before attacking them.
One of them was Matthias Ecke, who represents the German Social Democrats (SPD). The injuries were so serious that surgery was required.
According to information to Bild, the perpetrators were between 17 and 20 years old, and witnesses have placed them on the far right.
Earlier that evening, election workers from the Green party were also attacked.
– Our team was brutally attacked by the group of four people just a few meters away. They also hit our helper in the face and kicked him. Thankfully, he was not as seriously injured as Ecke, says the party’s member of the state parliament Valentin Lippman.
Police have launched an investigation and believe the attackers were the same in both cases due to similar descriptions and the time and place of the attacks.
Löfven about the attack
Sweden’s former Prime Minister Stefan Löfven, now chairman of the European Social Democratic Party, says at a conference together with Germany’s Chancellor Olaf Scholz that what happened on Friday was a “brutal attack”.
– Unfortunately, we have learned that yesterday there was a violent and brutal attack on the mother of one of our members. Matthias was seriously injured, he is in hospital and fortunately, as far as we know, is doing relatively well, says Löfven.
– This attack shows in a brutal way how important and urgent the topic of today’s democracy conference in Berlin is.