Matthias Ecke, the top candidate for the German in the eastern state of Saxony was seriously injured while campaigning for the upcoming , the party said on Saturday.
The 41-year-old politician was attacked on Friday evening in while putting up campaign posters, police confirmed.
The SPD said Ecke’s injuries would require surgery.
What we know about the attack
The head of the SPD in Saxony, Henning Homan, told German newspaper Bild that three or four unknown people suddenly appeared, insulted the team that was hanging up posters with homophobic slurs and then began to attack them.
Ecke reportedly suffered from broken bones and was unresponsive, according to Bild. Homan told the newspaper that Ecke would likely have to remain in hospital next week.
Another 28-year-old man had also been attacked shortly before while hanging up posters for the , police said. The victim of the first attack was also injured but did not require surgery.
Authorities are starting from the assumption that the attackers were the same in both instances due to similar descriptions and the time and location of the two attacks.
SPD condemns far-right violence
Homan and his regional party co-leader Kathrin Michel called it an “unignorable alarm signal to everyone in this country.”
“The series of attacks by thugs against election campaigners of democratic parties are an attack on the foundations of our democracy,” they added.
“Violence and intimidation against democrats are the means of the fascist,” the SPD shared in a statement on X, formerly Twitter.
The national leaders of the SPD, Saskia Esken and Lars Klingbeil, also condemned the attack on Ecke, saying “This insidious attack affects our whole party. It’s an attack on all election campaigners who passionately stand up for our democracy and the rule of law.”
German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser, also from the SPD, warned that the country was experiencing a “new dimension of anti-democratic violence.”
“The complete situations and background of this brutal act of violence must now be investigated in detail, with the perpetrators identified and brought to justice,” she said after a phone call with Saxony’s Interior Minister Armin Schuster, from the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU).
ab/sms (DPA, Reuters)
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