Thousands of demonstrators gathered in the streets of Dresden and Berlin on Sunday to protest right-wing extremism and political violence following Friday’s attack on the Social Democrat (SPD) lawmaker Matthias Ecke, a member of the European Parliament.
Ecke was assaulted in Dresden while hanging up posters ahead of June’s European parliamentary elections. He was beaten so severely that he required emergency surgery and remains hospitalized.
“It is very clear that this willingness to use violence did not occur in a vacuum,” said SPD co-chair Saskia Esken before the Sunday demonstrations.
Police said roughly 1,000 people gathered in front of Berlin’s famous Brandenburg Gate to voice support for democracy and stand against right-wing extremism.
In Dresden, police and organizers estimated the number of participants to be around 3,000.
Addressing the crowd in Dresden, Esken said far-right parties sowing discontent and contempt for democracy were to blame for a recent spate of incidents involving verbal and physical attacks on politicians.
“In this respect, these people who have threatened to hunt us down, to clean up this country, to muck it out, also share responsibility for the social climate in which such acts are possible,” said Esken; who was joined by Federal Culture Minister Claudia Roth and Saxony Justice Minister Katja Meier, both of the Green Party.
The protests were initiated by the groups Zusammen gegen Rechts (Together Against the Right) in Berlin, and Wir sind die Brandmauer Dresden (We Are the Firewall Dresden) in Dresden.
What happened in the Friday attack on Matthias Ecke?
Police in Dresden said Matthias Ecke was first verbally attacked and then physically beaten on Friday evening by a group of four young males whom eyewitnesses said appeared to have ranged in age from about 17 to 20.
One suspect, a 17-year-old, turned himself in on Sunday.
Eyewitnesses also told police that the perpetrators had been dressed in dark clothing and appeared to be part of the far-right scene.
Just minutes before attacking Ecke, the group is also believed to have beaten a Green Party staffer hanging campaign posters in the same neighborhood.
Reaction to growing far-right momentum
Far-right and extremist groups and political parties, chiefly among them Alternative for Germany (AfD), have a strong base in many eastern German states, including Saxony.
The AfD has soared in the polls to become the second most popular party in Germany after the center-right Christian Democrats (CDU). The party is also leading polls ahead of Saxony’s state election later this year.
However, the AfD’s rise and support for far-right policies have also triggered counter-demonstrations and sparked a discussion over the possibility of banning the party.
Last year, AfD members were among those attending a meeting of far-right and neo-Nazi extremists in Potsdam, outside Berlin, where attendees discussed deporting immigrants and, in some cases, German citizens.
The publication of reports by the investigative journalism group Correctiv detailing the Potsdam meeting sparked nationwide protests against the far-right this January.
The AfD has long been under surveillance by Germany’s domestic intelligence service on suspicion that it may be a right-wing extremist organization, but according to German media reports the agency could soon designate AfD a “definite extremist endeavor.”
German and EU leaders condemn attacks
Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser has called for a meeting with her state-level colleagues to discuss the rise of political violence across Germany in the run-up to the EU elections.
“The constitutional state must and will react to this with a tough approach and further protective measures for the democratic forces in our country,” she said on Saturday.
Though the assault on Ecke is perhaps the most high-profile case of political violence of late, it is certainly not the only one, as several other political campaigners have also been attacked in recent weeks.
On Thursday, for instance, German parliamentarian Kai Gehring and local politician Rolf Fliss, both Greens, were attacked in the western city of Essen following a campaign event.
The Greens have in fact stopped sending out party affiliates to hang up posters on their own in the cities of Chemnitz and Zwickau in Saxony after a series of attacks last weekend.
Fabian Funke, who like Ecke is a member of the Social Democrats, spoke with DW about recent attacks on politicians in Germany and the threat they pose to democracy.
“We see that these hostile attacks on people during election campaigns are rising,” he said. “I think this is really a dangerous time, also for the state of our democracy.”
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) also denounced what he called the “threat” posed by far-right political violence.
“Democracy is threatened by this kind of act,” Scholz told a congress of European socialist parties in Berlin, saying such attacks result from, “the atmosphere created by the discourse of pitting people against each other.”
“We must never accept such violence… we must oppose it together,” Scholz said.
Outside Germany, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell also commented on the attacks, saying, “We’re witnessing unacceptable episodes of harassment against political representatives, and growing far-right extremism that reminds us of dark times of the past.”
js,ab/sms,lo (dpa, AFP)
While you’re here: Every Tuesday, DW editors round up what is happening in German politics and society. You can sign up here for the weekly email newsletter Berlin Briefing.
