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CRIME

German far-right AfD candidate attacked with knife in Mannheim

According to the far-right AfD party, a council candidate was attacked with a cutter knife on Tuesday in the second recent attack to take place in the German town of Mannheim.

Published: 5 June 2024 10:55 CEST
Police officer with a gun in Germany
A police officer in Germany. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Marcus Brandt

The attack on the council candidate took place on 10:45pm on Tuesday evening, police confirmed to DPA on Wednesday.

“In Mannheim, our local council candidate Heinrich Koch was injured with a knife while confronting people destroying a poster,” the AfD’s national co-leader Tino Chrupalla said on X, formerly Twitter.

Koch was being treated for his wounds after the incident, which took place on Tuesday, the head of the AfD’s branch in the region of Baden-Württemberg, Emil Sänze, told AFP.

A 25-year-old suspect has been arrested but showed no signs of knowing that the victim, Heinrich Koch, was an AfD politician, police said.

The suspect showed “clear signs of mental illness” and was taken to a psychiatric hospital, police said, adding that there was currently “no concrete evidence that the suspect realised during the attack the victim was an AfD politician”.

Koch was taken to hospital but his wounds were not life threatening, police said.

Interior Minister Nancy Faeser condemned the “act of violence against a local AfD politician”.

According to the AfD district association, the incident took place near the market square in the Rheinau district on Mannheim.

The AfD council candidate allegedly caught a small group tearing down the party’s campaign posters and confronted them. He was then attacked by one man with a cutter knife after a short altercation. 

According to the AfD, a total of three people were involved, but two managed to escape.

READ ALSO: How politically motivated crimes are rising in Germany

In a video of the assault obtained by DPA and filmed by the injured council candidate, the AfD politician shouts, “Stop right there!” and chases after a young man carrying a set of AfD posters under his arm and what appears to be a box cutter.  

A scuffle breaks out and the young man appears to lunge at the politician. The rest of the images are blurred.

“Our members and representatives are the most common victims of political violence,” AfD leader Chrupalla said.

The attacks “cannot stop us”, he added. 

Political attacks

Several regions including Baden-Württemberg are holding municipal elections on June 9th, the same day as elections to the European Parliament.

The incident comes five days after a 25-year-old man attacked an anti-Islam rally on the market square in Mannheim, killing one and injuring five.

The attack was targeted an event on Friday organised by Pax Europa, a campaign group against radical Islam.

Five people attending the rally were injured, including far-right activist and blogger Michael Stürzenberger.

A 29-year-old policeman who intervened in the incident was stabbed multiple times in the area of the head and died from his wounds on Sunday.

READ ALSO: Germany mulls expulsions to Afghanistan after knife attack

Germany has seen a spate of attacks on politicians at work or on the campaign trail ahead of EU elections.

Matthias Ecke, a European Parliament lawmaker for Scholz’s SPD party, was set upon last month by a group of youths as he put up election posters in the eastern city of Dresden.

Days later, former Berlin mayor Franziska Giffey was hit on the head and neck with a bag as she visited a library in the capital.

With reporting by Sebastien Ash 

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POLITICS

Germany’s left-wing Social Democrats submit member request in fight against social cuts

Left-wing Social Democrats have submitted a member request to the party executive amid ongoing negotiations for the 2025 federal budget. Among other things, they are calling for the executive to reject social sector cuts.

Published: 22 June 2024 17:24 CEST
Germany's left-wing Social Democrats submit member request in fight against social cuts

German press agency DPA had sight of the proposal, which is supported by the left-wing Forum DL21 group, which several SPD members of parliament belong to. 

Referring to social affairs, health, youth, family, education, democracy and development cooperation, the paper states: “The departmental approaches of the ministries concerned must not be cut compared to the previous year’s budget. Instead, we need growth in these areas as well as significantly more investment in affordable housing, sustainable infrastructure, strong municipalities and ambitious climate protection.”

“An austerity budget would mean a ghost ride in economic, ecological and democratic terms,” the paper continues, concluding with an appeal: “The party calls on the members of the SPD parliamentary group to only agree to a federal budget under these conditions.”

The Jusos – the Young Socialists in the SPD – are also supporting the proposal: “The Juso Federal Executive Board supports the DL21 goal of a member request among SPD members for a strong investment budget and the prevention of an austerity budget as desired by the FDP,” a spokesman for the party’s youth told the DPA.

If successful, such a member request could restrict Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s (SDP) scope for action in the negotiations with Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) and Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck (Greens).

According to Forum DL21, the initiation of the request requires the support of one percent of SPD members from at least ten sub-districts in at least three federal states.

That corresponds currently to almost 4,000 members who would have to declare their support online within a month.

The request would then come into effect if 20 percent of members, i.e. around 76,000, support it within three months. The party executive must then declare whether it will grant the request – otherwise a member vote will be taken.

Lower Saxony’s Prime Minister Stephan Weil (SPD) is critical of the plan. “A federal budget like this is more than complex and completely unsuitable for a member survey,” he told German newspaper Welt am Sonntag.

The dispute over savings in the 2025 budget is currently paralysing Germany’s traffic light coalition and repeatedly raising questions about the continued existence of the three-party government.

Several departments do not want to comply with Lindner’s savings targets. The finance minister, however, insists that the brake on new government debt enshrined in Germany’s constitution (Grundgesetz) (it only makes provision for a limited amount of new debt) is adhered to. 

Lindner argues that investment needs up to 2030 and beyond can be covered by the regular budget. However, this requires restructuring expenditure and shifting priorities – such as the social budget.

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