Bishops after attack: "The stakes are high"

After the brutal attack on SPD politician Matthias Ecke, the bishops of the two major churches in Saxony have condemned attacks on election campaigners. "This open violence shakes us personally and as a society! We now need an awareness of how strongly a free democracy depends on fundamental values: fairness in the debate, respect for those who think differently and refraining from any form of personal degradation," reads a joint statement published on Monday by the Protestant state bishop Tobias Bilz and his Catholic counterpart Heinrich Timmerevers.

The attempts to spread fear and destabilize society ranged from aggressive polemics to physical violence: "There is a lot at stake! Let's stand up for a way of dealing with each other that focuses on human dignity and cohesion," the clergy explained. It is now important for Christians to speak out in private and in public, not to allow derogatory speech to go unchallenged and to stand by those who are under attack. "Democracy thrives on respect and fundamental values."

Dresden SPD politician and Saxony's leading SPD candidate for the European elections, Matthias Ecke, was beaten up by four young men in Dresden on Friday evening when he tried to put up election posters for his party. He had to be operated on in hospital. Previously, a Green Party campaigner had allegedly been attacked by the same men. The attacks triggered nationwide horror. Several thousand people gathered at demonstrations in Dresden and Berlin on Sunday. The police now know the names of all the suspects - young men aged 17 and 18.

"Free elections are the heart of our democracy," explained Saxony's Victims' Commissioner Iris Kloppich on Monday. Attempts at intimidation and physical assaults on candidates and election workers would therefore not only affect them, but all those who stand up for democracy and the rule of law with great commitment. "Violence must not become a means of political debate - we must agree on this in our democratic society."

Trade unionist Stephanie Albrecht-Suliak, Regional Director of IGBCE Nordost, expressed a similar view. Ecke is a member of the Mining, Chemical and Energy Industrial Union. "This shows in a frightening way how far the brutalization of political debate and culture has progressed. However, we will never accept that violence becomes a means of political culture. This attack must be responded to with all the means of our constitutional state."