Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier has expressed his "horror at the violent attacks" on politicians from the SPD and the Greens. "It is intolerable when representatives of constitutional bodies such as the Vice-President of the Bundestag Katrin Göring-Eckardt, European election campaigners such as Matthias Ecke from Dresden and public officials such as the third mayor of Essen Rolf Fliß are attacked, obstructed or even beaten and injured in their democratic work," he wrote in a statement distributed in Berlin on Saturday.
"This outbreak of violence is a warning," Steinmeier declared. "All those who want to preserve our liberal democracy must now stand together across party lines against attacks and assaults in political competition." The Federal President appealed to everyone to conduct the political debate peacefully, with arguments and respect. "Let us not allow radicals to use brutality to destroy what makes democracies what they are during election campaigns: peaceful, fear-free political decision-making."
