A German election candidate confronted a group of guys who were pulling down election signs and suffered a stab wound to the head and stomach. This incident marks the second stabbing of a conservative in a single German city within a short span of days.
On Tuesday in Mannheim, the 62yo Alternative for Germany (AfD) candidate for council elections came under attack. The German newspaper Die Welt reported that the attacker inflicted cuts on the right-wing activist’s ear and stomach, prompting his hospitalization.
The wounds required suturing even though they weren’t life-threatening.
The activist pursued the 25-year-old offender after he was allegedly involved in a group of three that had been stealing posters in the city, according to reports. A box cutter-style knife reportedly slashed one of the gang members, allowing the other two to escape. Subsequently, he managed to escape, only to face capture later.
Reports state that a mental health facility declared the accused knifeman “mentally ill” and admitted him. Welt downplayed a political motivation for the knife attack by saying, “There is no evidence” that the assailant, who had been stealing posters, even realized the guy he was slashing was a politician.
Alice Weidel, the co-leader of the AfD, described the attack as a “horrifying act” and expressed her hope that her party colleague would quickly recover from the wounds and the shock of such a targeted attack. AfD members were the most common victims of political violence in Germany, according to party MP Tino Chrupalla, but he added that such incidents would not deter them from running for office.
Only four days had passed since a second stabbing incident in Mannheim, where a migrant from Afghanistan assaulted the preparations for a planned political demonstration in a municipal square. Michael Stuerzenberger, an anti-Mosque and anti-Islamification activist, succumbed to a fatal stabbing, while the responding police officer, unintentionally making an arrest, also met his demise.
Days later, police acknowledged that the widespread stabbing against an anti-extreme Islamism rally was likely an act of extremist Islamism. At first, they were also reticent about the possible motivation for that attack. After being shot by police, the suspect—who was meant to have been deported years ago—remains hospitalized.
As previously reported, the stabbing of conservative, anti-Islamification activists in Mannheim, as well as the ensuing controversy surrounding it, occurred only a few days before this week’s elections to the European Parliament and Sunday’s local elections in Germany. Unintentionally livestreamed video of the attack went viral on social media worldwide, and in the final days of the election campaign, there was a surge in discussion over deportation policy.
