The man had first attacked her verbally and then hit her with a glass in the face, said Maurer’s press spokesman. The club chairwoman was not injured.
The police were there immediately and were able to temporarily arrest the attacker near the guest garden where the incident had occurred. The executive is investigating because of attempted bodily harm, the interrogation was still running on Thursday evening, it said on request. State police investigations into the background to the crime are also ongoing. According to the police broadcast, the alleged perpetrator is a 26-year-old Austrian.
Nehammer condemns “cowardly attack”
Chancellor Karl Nehammer (ÖVP) reacted immediately and strongly condemned the “cowardly attack” in a written statement. “Violence can and must never be used in political disputes,” he explained: “I’m glad that Sigi Maurer survived this incident unscathed and I thank the officials for their quick intervention. Now it’s the judiciary’s turn.”
Green party leader and Vice Chancellor Werner Kogler was also outraged. “My party colleague and esteemed friend Sigi Maurer was the victim of a physical attack today,” he wrote via social media: “I condemn cowardly acts of violence like this in the strongest possible terms and should have no place in our democracy.” NEOS boss Beate Meinl-Reisinger and Vienna’s mayor Michael Ludwig (SPÖ) also backed the Greens’ club chairwoman.
The attack is not the first publicly known experience of violence in Maurer’s political career. In 2018 she received obscene messages via Facebook, made this public and was then sued by a man known as “Bierwirt” for defamation. She was finally acquitted in 2021. At the time, she spoke of a precedent that triggered a public debate about “hate on the internet”.
Source: Nachrichten
