Saxony's interior minister condemns attacks on politicians and election workers

Saxony's Interior Minister Armin Schuster has condemned the attack on SPD MEP Matthias Ecke and a Green Party election worker. "The attacks on the individuals themselves are completely unacceptable, but they are also attacks on the core of our democracy, on honorary office-holders and elected officials as well as election workers, on whom we all depend during the election campaign," said Schuster on Saturday. These crimes cannot be tolerated. "Each of these attacks affects us all, it is about nothing less than our free, equal, universal, direct and secret elections." The protection of public officials and elected representatives is a high priority for the Ministry of the Interior. Schuster called the current increase in attacks worrying.

Late on Friday evening, four unidentified men attacked 41-year-old Ecke and a 28-year-old Green Party election worker while they were putting up election posters in the Striesen district of Dresden. Both were injured, Ecke had to be treated in hospital. Last weekend there had already been attacks on three members of the Green Party who were putting up posters in Chemnitz and Zwickau. According to the Ministry of the Interior, 112 politically motivated crimes in connection with elections have been registered in Saxony since the beginning of the year - 30 of them against public officials or elected representatives. In the first week of the election campaign, 51 politically motivated crimes against election posters were reported to the police.