Violence against CDU politician: Linnemann calls for distancing Scholz

The Winterfeldtkiez in Berlin-Schöneberg is a middle-class district. On Tuesday evening, around half past six, the two CDU young politicians Alex Gerasimenko and Jan Heuer run from Mietshaus to Mietshaus, are campaign flyers in mailboxes. Suddenly a man storms down the stairs in a house, insulted the two young men: “Piss you!” Calls the man. And: “You wanker!” So Gerasimenko remembers the day after.

Then he approaches the two, pushes away, tries to push her out of the house. The man suddenly raises his shoulders this year and pushes him away. This year falls, his cell phone breaks on the impact. The man roars the two, they flee out of the house. Your flyers remain in the courtyard, and the broken cell phone also leave them behind. They only dare to go back to the house when the police arrive. Both reimburse advertisements on site.

Gerasimenko, who is also chairman of the Junge Union in the district, says: “You get scared.” Pöbelungs have long been used to it, but such attacks are of new quality. “It accumulates and it radicalizes,” says the 30-year-old. He gets away with a fright, his buddy with bruises.

The attack on the two young men is only one of the currently many attacks and threats to politicians, branches and employees of the CDU. The mood has been heated up again since the CDU in the Bundestag wanted to enforce harder asylum rules in the Bundestag last week. Since then there have been peaceful demonstrations on the one hand, but increasingly also hatred and violence against the party.

The local deputy and top candidate of the Berlin CDU, Jan-Marco Luczak, told that star After the attack: “Anyone who projects the CDU ‘on the victory column is responsible for such attacks.” Luczak criticized that this has nothing to do with an “uprising of the decent”. “In the meantime, our volunteers are afraid to go to the information stand.”

From the CDU party headquarters, it is said that attacks are reported almost daily. At the end of last week, the Konrad-Adenauer-Haus had put together a list of attacks and lubrication from CDU branches. It lies that star before. Between Wednesday and Friday last week alone, incidents occurred in Berlin, Hamburg, Dortmund, Bochum, Freiburg, Recklinghausen, Lüneburg, Emden, Höxter, Mainz and Trier. An employee of the CDU member of the Bundestag Johannes Steiniger has received a threat of murder.

Therefore, in the CDU in Hamburg you are alarmed. The citizens’ election also takes place there just a week after the Bundestag election. At the weekend, some district associations canceled their information stands for security concerns, especially in the districts of Sankt Georg, Altona and in the Schanzenviertel. So where the left scene is strong. Since this week, all CDU campaign stands in Hamburg have been guarded by the police, and top candidate Dennis Thering has also been accompanied by the police on public dates.

In a letter to the members that starthe Hamburg State Association writes: “We were provided with a police liaison officer that we can contact as soon as there should be hostility at the information stand.” It also says: “Please stay careful and let’s ensure a safe election campaign together.” In addition, the state association sends a letter from the State Criminal Police Office with tips on behavior in an emergency.

CDU general secretary Carsten Linnemann told him star Regarding the incidents: “The left violence continues: In Berlin, two campaign helpers from the Junge Union have now been attacked.” He described the attacks of the past few days as criminal. This has nothing to do with protest, which is why you are doing it with all legal means. “I mainly appeal to the SPD top and Olaf Scholz to clarify this violence in all clarity so as not to further heat it,” said Linnemann.

Other parties also report attacks on their volunteers and politicians. In the past year, the Greens were most often affected by attacks. However, the AfD was most affected by violent offenses. This emerges from new figures from the Federal Ministry of the Interior. Overall, the attacks in 2024 reached the highest level of recording period of six years according to preliminary figures.

In Berlin, Jan Heuer and Alex Gerasimenko digest the shock from the previous evening. This time it went out lightly, but you are already thinking: What if you are less lucky in misfortune next time? What happens when a weapon is suddenly involved?

“I will continue, but with a very queasy feeling,” says Gerasimenko. “I don’t want to know what it has to be for younger people and for women.” Jan Heuer says he will be more careful in the future. But that’s another feeling: “Now more than now!”