German chancellor says attacks are ‘outrageous and cowardly’ after politicians have been hit and injured in Germany
Germany’s chancellor, Olaf Scholz, has strongly condemned a rash of attacks on politicians after a senator and former mayor of Berlin was struck over the head in a public library in the third assault on an elected official in less than a week.
Franziska Giffey, a member of Scholz’s centre-left Social Democratic party (SPD) was slightly injured and briefly hospitalised after a man hit her from behind with a bag containing an unidentified hard object on Tuesday. Police have arrested a 74-year-old male suspect.
“The attacks on Franziska Giffey and other politicians are outrageous and cowardly,” Scholz said on Wednesday. “Violence does not belong in a democratic debate. Decent and reasonable people are clearly standing against it – and they are the majority.”
The German government condemned a “growing number of despicable attacks”, adding that a “climate of intimidation, of violence” could not be accepted. The European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, said perpetrators must be brought to justice.
“We must protect from attacks all who stand up for our democratic society, no matter what party they belong to,” Von der Leyen, who was in Berlin for a conference, said. “If they are no longer safe, our democracy is no longer safe either.”
The attack on Giffey came as state ministers convened an emergency meeting and called for greater police protection of politicians.
