The attacks on politicians and election campaigners have caused horror across the country. The finance minister complains about a general change in mood in recent years – and refers to left-wing groups.
Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) has complained about increasing aggressiveness in dealing with politicians. “The brutalization, even beyond attacks, is obvious,” the FDP leader told the newspapers of the Bavaria media group (Saturday). “I’ve been a member of parliament for 24 years now, but I’ve hardly ever had to deal with escalations. Things have changed within a few years.”
At his events there are now regularly mainly left-wing groups who no longer want to discuss, but only want to make noise or block. “Or attempt to use stink bombs to make it impossible to present arguments at all.”
Lindner doesn’t want to change his own behavior
He doesn’t want to change his own behavior in light of the recent attacks on politicians. “No, I don’t feel threatened,” said Lindner, who is under personal protection as finance minister. “I don’t change my behavior either. For example, I still take selfies with the visitors to my events.” He also rejected harsher penalties specifically for attacks on politicians: “Experts say that the punishment range is sufficient, but the ability of the judiciary to act must be improved. Assault is a criminal offense. It makes no difference whether the victim holds a public office or not .”
The German Association of Judges called for a change of course by the federal government in the fight against extremism and right-wing populism. Federal Managing Director Sven Rebehn told the newspapers of the Funke media group: “The traffic light coalition talks a lot about the resilience of the rule of law, but does too little about it. Now the Federal Finance Minister is taking revenge for the fact that the Federal Minister of Finance has put the red pencil on the rule of law.” More prevention programs, better education about disinformation online and effective law enforcement are needed to break the spiral of hatred, threats and violence.
White Ring: Fighting hate “is our duty”
After the violent attacks on politicians, the victim protection organization Weißer Ring also called for greater action against hate and violence slogans. “Anyone who still had doubts as to whether violence on the Internet could at some point also be dangerous to people in the analogue world should now be proven wrong,” said the Federal Managing Director of the White Ring, Bianca Biwer, to the German Press Agency in Mainz. “Hate is not an opinion,” she emphasized. “It is our duty to fight it in every form: whether digital or analogue.”
In Dresden, SPD campaigner Matthias Ecke was attacked and injured so badly that he had to be operated on in a hospital. Local politician Yvonne Mosler (Greens) was jostled and threatened while hanging up election posters in the Saxon state capital. In Berlin, Economics Senator Franziska Giffey (SPD) was slightly injured by an attacker.
Source: Stern
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