A candidate of Chancellor Olaf Solz’s center-left party for the European elections was attacked and seriously injured during an election campaign.
It was the latest in a string of escalating violence in Germany ahead of the election.
Solz’s Social Democrats (SPD) launched their official campaign for the June 9 vote with a rally last week in Hamburg, Solz’s old home town.
SPD candidate Matias Eke was attacked during a poster-hanging in Dresden on Friday night. He was taken to hospital and required surgery for his injuries.
Interior Secretary Nancy Feiser said that if the attack on Eke was found to be politically motivated, it would be a “serious attack on democracy”.
“We are experiencing a new dimension of anti-democratic violence,” Feser said. He promised “tougher action and further protection measures for democratic forces in our country.”
Government and opposition parties say their members and supporters have faced a wave of physical and verbal attacks in recent months.
Many of the incidents have taken place in the former communist east of the country, where the far-right and anti-establishment party Alternative for Germany (AfD) is expected to garner several votes in the European and German state elections in the autumn.
The parties accuse the AfD of links to violent neo-Nazi groups and fomenting an increasingly violent political climate. AfD member Bjoern Hoecke is currently on trial on charges of using a banned Nazi slogan. Germany’s domestic intelligence service has placed some sections of the party under surveillance.
The Social Democrats’ branch in the state of Saxony, where Eke is their lead candidate for the European elections, said their campaign would continue despite “fascist methods” of intimidation.
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