A new knife attack has put authorities in Germany on alert. A politician from the far-right party Alternative for Germany (AfD) was attacked with a knife this Tuesday in the city of Mannheim, in the state of Baden-Württemberg (southwest of the country), just four days after the knife attack perpetrated by an Afghan 25 years old in this same town during an event by the anti-Islamist movement Pax Europa. The attack occurred at night, near the city’s market square. As reported by the party, the politician, whose identity has not been revealed, saw a person tearing up a poster of his party and, when he approached to reproach him, he was attacked with a knife.
The attacked person, a local AfD candidate, is hospitalized with minor injuries, while the attacker has been arrested, as reported by the German newspaper. Die Welt. The incident takes place just a few days after the death of the police officer injured in the first attack, a fact that has sparked an intense debate on security and migration in the country just days before the European elections.
According to the AfD account, which claims to be based on a video recorded at the scene, three people participated in the attack, but two of them managed to escape. In the video, available to the German news agency DPA, the AfD candidate is seen running after a young man through the market square and shouting “Stop! Stop there!”. The young man carries several AfD election posters under his arm and carries a sharp weapon in his hand. “Stop right now!” is heard at the end of the video, according to the agency’s story. Then a scuffle breaks out and the man can be seen lunging at the politician with the gun.
The AfD suspects that the perpetrators are left-wing extremists. Authorities have not yet confirmed the attack or the motivation. “We are shocked and dismayed,” said the president of the AfD in the state of Baden-Württemberg, Markus Frohnmaier. Next Sunday, in addition to the European elections, local elections will be held in Baden-Württemberg.
The events in Mannheim occur after a series of attacks against politicians that have caused commotion in Germany and have generated a climate of confrontation and polarization that greatly worries the authorities.
The target of the attacker, last Friday, was Michael Stürzenberger, one of the country’s most critical voices against Islam and considered an extremist by the German intelligence services. Six people were injured in the attack, including Stürzenberger and the deceased officer. The attacker, a 25-year-old Afghan who has been residing in Germany since 2014, was shot dead and remains in hospital. After several days in which the authorities did not confirm the motive for the attack, the Minister of Justice, Marco Buschmann, has stated that there is “clear evidence” of an “Islamist motivation.”
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