Last Friday, an Afghan man stabbed several people in the same city.
5.6. 16:44•Updated 5.6. 16:44
The local election candidate of the far-right Alternative for Germany party, or AfD Heinrich Koch was wounded Tuesday night in a stabbing in the city of Mannheim, local police and the AfD say.
The suspected stabber had been in town tearing down election posters when Koch intervened, the party says.
According to the police, the suspect attacked the candidate with a carpet knife. According to the AfD, Koch received slash wounds to his head and stomach. He was taken to hospital, but his injuries are not life-threatening.
The suspect fled the scene, but the police caught him later in the evening. According to the police, the 25-year-old suspect appeared to suffer from mental health problems and was taken to a psychiatric hospital.
Mayor of Mannheim Christian Specht condemns the attack. He called it a cowardly and despicable act. Specht said that a person attacking an election candidate calls into question free elections and the basis of democracy.
The AfD described the attack as an act of the extreme left against members of the party. According to the police, there is no evidence that the suspect knew he was going to attack an AfD politician.
In Germany, local elections will be held in several regions on June 9. The European Parliament elections are also held on the same day.
German politicians from different parties have been targeted by several attacks during the EU elections.
Tensions are rising in Mannheim
Last Friday, there was a mass stabbing in Mannheim when an Afghan man attacked a protest against political Islam.
The attacker stabbed six people, one of whom was a police officer who intervened.
The stabber hit the 29-year-old police officer several times in the head area with a knife. The policeman died of his injuries on Sunday.
Another police officer shot the attacker. The knifeman is suspected of, among other things, murder and attempted murder.
The Afghan man has been living in Germany since 2014. The authorities suspect that the man had an Islamist motive.
Activists of the youth wing of the AfD organized a protest in Mannheim on Sunday, where they demanded a stricter immigration and asylum policy, reports the news site Euronews.
Leftists organized a counter-demonstration where they condemned AfD’s “extreme right-wing narrative”.
Later on Sunday, right-wing and left-wing activists clashed in Mannheim. The police had to intervene.
Sources: AFP, AP, Reuters