Fear dreams like in the 1990s
SPD politician Ecke: “I’m hit, but not intimidated”
May 10, 2024, 7:33 p.m
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The SPD politician Matthias Ecke, who was brutally attacked a week ago, describes the attack on himself in an interview. As far as injuries go, he is “getting better every day.” In the medium term, however, he still has to process the experience. He doesn’t want to be silenced.
A week after the attack on SPD politician Matthias Ecke, he announced that he would soon return to the election campaign. “I will not let the attack silence me,” Ecke told the “Freie Presse” from Chemnitz, the “Leipziger Volkszeitung” and the “Sächsische Zeitung” from Dresden in a joint interview. “I’m struck, but not intimidated.” If the healing process allows, he would like to attend individual appointments starting next week. He doesn’t experience fear in his party either.
“I’m feeling better every day,” Ecke told the newspapers, but he was still in pain. “I don’t have a feeling of limited security at the moment. However, I have to see how I can cope with the experience in the medium term.” The Saxon SPD European top candidate was beaten up while posting posters in Dresden on Friday last week. He suffered broken bones in his face.
Provocative question, then punch
The attack came suddenly, said Ecke, “a matter of a few seconds.” He was asked provocatively why he was putting up an SPD poster, and then the blow came. “People have used the social climate, which is becoming increasingly harsh, as an opportunity to resort to vigilantism.”
Ecke continued that he was reminded of the 1990s. “Back then, too, there were spaces of fear that were created by neo-Nazis. Old acquaintances from back then and party friends also felt the same way. This was even an issue among the staff in the emergency room on Friday.” The AfD has poisoned the social climate in recent years. “We are dealing with a manufactured disinhibition and an organized brutalization that the AfD creates together with other structures of the extreme right.” He thinks of the Free Saxons and the Identitarian Movement. This level of brutalization has never been seen in election campaigns before.