A German MEP was hospitalized after a suspected far-right attack in Dresden on Friday. Protests have been called to counter rising right-wing extremism and violence.
Following Friday's attack on the Social Democrat (SPD) lawmaker Matthias Ecke, a member of European Parliament, anti-far-right protests have been called for Sunday in Berlin and Dresden.
Ecke was assaulted in Dresden while hanging up posters ahead of June's European parliamentary elections.
Police said the suspects were a group of young men, one of which, a 17-year-old, handed himself in on Sunday. Police also said the group members had been dressed in dark clothing and appeared to be part of the far-right scene.
The same group is also believed to have attacked a Green Party member who was also campaigning just minutes before attacking Eck.
Ecke required an urgent operation after the incident.
Protests against far-right violence
The groups Zusammen gegen Rechts (Together against the right) and Wir sind die Brandmauer Dresden (We are the firewall Dresden) called for spontaneous Sunday protests in Berlin and Dresden, respectively.
Far-right and extremist groups and political parties, chiefly among them the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, 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 also triggered counter-demonstrations and sparked a discussion over the option of banning the party.
AfD members also attended a meeting last year of far-right and neo-Nazi extremists in Potsdam, outside Berlin, where attendees discussed deporting immigrants and, in some cases, German citizens. Reports detailing the meeting by the group Correctiv sparked nationwide protests against the far-right.
Germany's domestic intelligence service has had the AfD under surveillance as a suspected case of right-wing extremism, but according to German media reports it could soon designate the party as a "definite extremist endeavor."
German and EU leaders condemn attacks
Interior Minister Nancy Faeser has called for a meeting with her state-level colleagues to discuss the rise of political violence 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.
The assault on Ecke is the most high-profile case, but other political campaigners have also been attacked in recent weeks.
Kai Gehring, a Green Party member of the German parliament, was attacked in the western city of Essen on Thursday following a party event.
The Greens have also stopped sending out party affiliates on their own to hang up posters in the cities of Chemnitz and Zwickau in Saxony after a series of attacks last weekend.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, SPD, denounced 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 "discourse, the atmosphere created from pitting people against each other."
"We must never accept such acts of violence... we must oppose it together," Scholz said.
The EU's foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, also commented on the attacks, "We're witnessing unacceptable episodes of harassment against political representatives and growing far-right extremism that reminds us of dark times of the past."
ab/sms (dpa, AFP)
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