A rally took place in front of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin on Sunday evening under the motto “Take a stand once morest hatred and violence: Our democracy cannot be intimidated!” instead of.
At least 2,000 people took part, as a reporter from the AFP news agency reported. A spokeswoman for the Berlin police spoke of a number of participants in the “low four-digit range”. The participants included politicians such as SPD leader Lars Klingbeil, North Rhine-Westphalia Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst (CDU) and Green Party leader Ricarda Lang.
AfD partly responsible?
Klingbeil made the AfD partly responsible for the climate of violence. AfD politicians such as the Thuringian AfD leader Björn Höcke and the federal party leader Alice Weidel “did not strike directly,” he told the demonstrators. “But I’m telling you, they have helped to produce the social climate in this country that leads other people to lash out at volunteers, at activists, at politicians and politicians.”
A 65-year-old protester said it was “important to her to do something regarding the fact that this hatred is flooding people, determining people and everything.” This “simply shouldn’t be the case”.
In Dresden, around 3,000 demonstrators gathered in the city center following a call from parties and civil society organizations, a police spokesman said. The list of speakers included, among others, Saxony’s Interior Minister Armin Schuster (CDU), SPD leader Saskia Esken and Bundestag Vice President Katrin Göring-Eckardt (Greens).
Attacked by 4 people
The SPD politician Ecke was attacked by four perpetrators while hanging up election posters in Dresden on Friday and, according to the party, was injured so seriously that he had to be operated on. The attack caused consternation across party lines. The police state security took over the investigation.
The Saxon State Criminal Police Office (LKA) announced on Sunday that a 17-year-old had reported himself as one of the perpetrators. The young person had not previously appeared to the police. The Saxon police said on Sunday evening in the online service X that the 17-year-old had not yet commented on the motive for the crime. The search for the remaining perpetrators continued.
Shortly before the attack on Ecke, a 28-year-old who was putting up election posters for the Greens was attacked and injured in Dresden. It was only on Friday that an attack on two Green Party politicians in Essen, North Rhine-Westphalia, became known – on Bundestag member Kai Gehring and the third mayor of Essen, Rolf Fliß. Fliß was hit in the face and slightly injured in the incident on Thursday evening.
