Germany’s chancellor, Olaf Scholz, has strongly condemned a rash of attacks on politicians after a senator and former mayor of Berlin was struck over the head in a public library in the third assault on an elected official in less than a week.
Franziska Giffey, a member of Scholz’s centre-left Social Democratic party (SPD) was slightly injured and briefly hospitalised after a man hit her from behind with a bag containing an unidentified hard object on Tuesday. Police have arrested a 74-year-old male suspect.
“The attacks on Franziska Giffey and other politicians are outrageous and cowardly,” Scholz said on Wednesday. “Violence does not belong in a democratic debate. Decent and reasonable people are clearly standing against it – and they are the majority.”
The German government condemned a “growing number of despicable attacks”, adding that a “climate of intimidation, of violence” could not be accepted. The European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, said perpetrators must be brought to justice.
“We must protect from attacks all who stand up for our democratic society, no matter what party they belong to,” Von der Leyen, who was in Berlin for a conference, said. “If they are no longer safe, our democracy is no longer safe either.”
The attack on Giffey came as state ministers convened an emergency meeting and called for greater police protection of politicians. The number of verbal and physical assaults has soared this year with European and local elections due to take place.
Giffey’s suspected attacker, who was known to police for hate crime and unspecified “incidents against state security”, was believed to have mental health issues, police have said.
Giffey said she was “concerned and shaken” by a culture in which politicians are “increasingly exposed to attacks that are supposedly justified and acceptable … We live in a free and democratic country, in which everyone can be free to express his or her opinions. But there is a clear line – and that is violence against people.”
But, she added, elected officials must be able to mix with the public. “I like taking the underground, I like being out and about, I like speaking to people, I like approaching people. And I would like to hold on to this. This is my city,” she said.
Berlin’s mayor, Kai Wegner, said anyone who attacked politicians was “attacking our democracy … We will not tolerate this”. He promised to examine “tougher sentences for attacks against politicians”.
Also on Tuesday, two people were arrested in Dresden after a 47-year-old Green party member was shoved and spat at while putting up campaign posters. The pair had earlier been seen in a group of people making Nazi salutes, police said.
“The perpetrators wanted to publicly declare their own district a no-go area for the Greens,” a Green party spokesperson said in a statement. “Their hatred and ruthlessness in front of the camera are repulsive and shocking.”
Last Friday, an MEP from the SDP, Matthias Ecke, needed an operation for serious injuries sustained when four people attacked him while he was putting up EU election posters in the same eastern city, a recent hotspot for assaults on politicians.
Four suspects aged between 17 and 18 – all of whom, according to German media, are believed to have links to a far-right group known as “Elblandrevolte” – are being investigated by police over the attack.
According to provisional police figures, 2,790 crimes were committed against politicians in Germany in 2023, up from 1,806 the previous year but down from the 2,840 recorded in 2021, when Germany’s last general election was held.
Mainstream politicians have blamed the rising political violence on the resurgence of the far-right Alternative for Germany party, which could sweep three state elections this year. The government has said it will look into tightening laws on political attacks.
The AfD’s co-leader, Alice Weidel, has said attempts to use the attack on Ecke for political gain were “vile and irresponsible”, and that AfD politicians and members were also frequently attacked.
Reuters and Agence-France Presse contributed to this report