Berlin’s Minister for Economy, Energy and Business, Franziska Giffey, from Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democratic Party (SPD), was injured in an attack in a library in the Rudow district, in the German capital.
A man suddenly attacked her “from behind with a bag filled with hard contents and hit her in the head and neck” in a library Tuesday afternoon, police said Wednesday.
Giffey, former mayor of Berlin and former federal minister, “briefly went to the hospital for outpatient treatment for head and neck pain,” according to police. » and the Berlin public prosecutor’s office said in a statement.
Berlin prosecutors said they had identified the alleged attacker, but did not provide details.
The politician herself later said on social media: “After the initial shock, I can say that I am fine. »
But in her Instagram post, she went on to condemn a “level playing field culture in which politically active and engaged people in our country are increasingly exposed to supposedly justified and acceptable attacks.”
“This is a boundary transgression that we, as a society, must resolutely oppose,” she wrote.
Pattern of attacks on politicians
In another incident on Tuesday, a 47-year-old Greens politician in the eastern city of Dresden was threatened and spat on while hanging campaign posters.
A DW reporting team was on site and recorded the incident.
A 34-year-old man and a 24-year-old woman, both German nationals, are being investigated for their alleged involvement, police said.
They apparently belonged to a group of people who were nearby when the politician began her work. This group is also under investigation after an illegal Nazi slogan was allegedly heard emanating from it.
These attacks come just days after attacks against MEP Matthias Ecke and a Green Party campaign worker.
Ecke, an MEP from Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s SPD, was attacked by four attackers while displaying European election posters in Dresden on Friday evening, according to police.
Politicians condemn “spiral of violence”
Berlin Sports Minister Iris Spranger “strongly” condemned the attack “against Franziska Giffey and other politicians and election workers, all engaged in a democratic debate.”
“The state and federal police forces are doing everything they can to protect politicians. The conference of interior ministers agreed yesterday in the extraordinary session that democracy must be protected more effectively against hate speech and false information.”
“Protecting individuals against such attacks under criminal law also serves to protect democracy itself.”
Greens co-chair Ricarda Lang wrote on work for democracy.
The Interior Minister of the neighboring state of Brandenburg, Michael Stübgen, from the opposition Christian Democrats (CDU), condemned what he called a growing trend of threats against politicians and brutality in social media.
“Unfortunately, we have been observing this spiral for years, and this year we have a spiral of violence with physical attacks against politicians which worries me a lot,” he told RBB24 Inforadio.
jsi,tj/nm (AFP, dpa)
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