A suspect was arrested after a local council candidate for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) was attacked with a knife, police and prosecutors said on Wednesday.
The attack on Tuesday was the latest in a series of incidents against politicians that have heightened concerns over rising political violence in Germany.
The candidate was attacked after confronting an individual who was trying to remove an election poster on Tuesday, officials said. The perpetrator injured the man with a carpet knife.
The politician was injured in the incident but did not suffer life-threatening injuries, a joint statement said.
The German DPA news agency reported that the incident happened at about 10:45 p.m. (2045 GMT/UTC).
Mannheim AfD councilor Jörg Finkler said his 62-year-old friend and colleague, who was taken to hospital, had suffered injuries to the ear and stomach.
“We are shocked and dismayed,” said AfD state chairman Markus Frohnmaier.
Police arrested a 25-year-old suspect who made a brief escape attempt and was said to have exhibited signs of mental illness as he was detained.
According to the AfD, the person attacked was Heinrich Koch, who is placed third on the party list for the Mannheim city council election on Sunday.
The alleged incident comes just days after another stabbing attack in the same city that resulted in the death of a police officer. The incident happened at a rally held by anti-Islamic group Pax Europa.
String of political attacks
Germany has been shocked by a series of attacks on politicians while they were working or on the campaign trail ahead of elections for the European Parliament.
A European Parliament lawmaker for Scholz’s center-left Social Democrats, Matthias Ecke, was attacked by a group of youths last month while putting up election posters in the eastern city of Dresden.
Only days later, the former Berlin mayor Franziska Giffey was hit on the head and neck with a bag containing hard objects as she visited a library in the capital.
Germany considers deporting Afghan migrants who pose security threat
Germany is considering deporting Afghan migrants who pose a security threat back to Afghanistan, the interior minister said, after the killing of a police officer in a knife attack last week drew calls for a tougher line on migration.
Such a move would be controversial as Germany does not repatriate people to countries where they are threatened with death. It stopped deportations to Afghanistan after the Taliban took power in 2021. In addition, reaching a deal with the Taliban, some of whose officials are under international sanctions, is widely seen as problematic.
However, just days before European elections in which the far-right is expected to perform strongly, the minister said she had been intensively looking at the issue for months and planned to make a decision as soon as possible.
“It is clear to me that people who pose a potential threat to Germany’s security must be deported quickly,” Interior Minister Nancy Faeser told reporters, adding this included sending people to Afghanistan and Syria.
“I am also quite adamant that Germany’s security interests clearly outweigh the interests of those affected,” she said, adding the government was already trying to speed up deportations to other countries.
The knife attack on Friday by a 25-year-old originally from Afghanistan severely injured six people at an anti-Islam event in Mannheim on Friday. A policeman died from his injuries. The attacker, who was shot and wounded was not living illegally in Germany.
In the last few days, the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) has used the attack to call for a tougher migrant policy.
“Our thoughts are with all civil servants who have to put their lives in danger every day because of a misguided migration and security policy,” the AfD’s co-leaders said.
Within the awkward three-way coalition led by Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats), the Greens oppose plans for deportations to Afghanistan.
Read more via Deutsche Welle
