More than 2,000 people protest in Dresden against violence in the election campaign – News

The alliance “Wir sind die Brandmauer Dresden” (“We are the protective wall of Dresden”, in free translation) called for the demonstration, supported by several civil organizations, to Pohlandplatz square, in the Saxon capital, close to the street where Ecke, the main social democratic candidate for the European elections in Saxony, was attacked on Friday by a group of four people.

A 17-year-old young man handed himself in to the police in the early hours of today and admitted that he was the author of the attack against the 41-year-old Social Democratic politician, who had to undergo surgery.

The suspect, who has no criminal record, was not detained because he was a teenager and had voluntarily surrendered.

The young man will now be interrogated by the Police Center for Combating Terrorism and Extremism (PTAZ) in the presence of his lawyer.

The co-president of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), Saskia Esken, warned today, at her party’s headquarters in Dresden, before the demonstration of solidarity, of the need not to trivialize the attack on Ecke as an isolated act of one person.

“It is clear that this predisposition to violence does not fall from the sky,” he stated, adding that “it has to do with the seeds of social division and with the messages of contempt for democracy that emanate from the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party and other far-right parties” and that “are co-responsible for the social climate in which such acts are possible”.

According to the police, minutes before the attack on Ecke, a group of four people, probably the same people who attacked the Social Democratic politician, had already attacked another 28-year-old Green volunteer, also while posting posters.

The attack against MEP Matthias Ecke occurred on Friday night in Dresden, when the candidate was alone putting up posters at the start of the electoral campaign for the European elections, scheduled for June 9th.

Several German politicians, including Chancellor Olaf Scholz, condemned the violent attack.

The SPD in the state of Saxony is reinforcing security measures preventing its members from carrying out campaign actions alone from now on.

In this sense, it was established that members of that party must always be in groups of four or five to be able to react to potential attacks and the police will be informed in advance about the posting of posters.