Rally in Berlin
Demonstrators show solidarity with SPD politicians
May 5, 2024, 8:29 p.m
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In Dresden, the SPD’s leading candidate for the European elections, Matthias Ecke, is attacked. As a result, more than a thousand people took to the streets in Berlin. They want to take a stand against political violence. Politicians from the CDU and the Greens are also there.
According to initial police reports, over 1,000 people attended the demonstration at the Brandenburg Gate in solidarity with the SPD politician Matthias Ecke, who was attacked in Dresden. Originally, 50 participants were announced for the rally, as the police said in advance. The Green Party chairmen Ricarda Lang and Omid Nouripour, SPD leader Lars Klingbeil, SPD General Secretary Kevin Kühnert, as well as the Prime Ministers of Saxony and North Rhine-Westphalia, Michael Kretschmer and Hendrik Wüst (both CDU), also came to the demonstration.
On behalf of the SPD, Klingbeil expressed shock at the act of violence. “The Höckes and the Gaulands and the Weidels may not have raised their fist and they didn’t strike directly. But I’m telling you, they helped produce the social climate in this country that makes other people rely on volunteers and activists to hit politicians.”
Climate activist Luisa Neubauer emphasized that the attack on Ecke meant all Democrats. “When people who stand up for democracy are attacked, when people who speak out for justice are torn apart on the Internet, when people no longer dare to stand up freely for non-violence, for democracy, for a better society, then we are everyone is meant.” Wüst previously said in the ARD “Report from Berlin” that violence is not an effective means in politics. The attacks were reminiscent of the darkest chapters in German history.
Matthias Ecke is the Saxon SPD’s leading candidate for the European elections. The 41-year-old was attacked while posting posters on Friday evening. He suffered a fracture of his cheekbone and eye socket as well as hematomas on his face, said Saxony’s SPD leader Henning Homann on Sunday afternoon. On Thursday in Essen, Bundestag member Kai Gehring and his party colleague Rolf Fliß said they were attacked and Fliß was beaten.
A few days ago, Bundestag Vice President Katrin-Göring-Eckardt was aggressively harassed after an event in eastern Brandenburg and prevented from leaving for a long time. According to police, an AfD member of the state parliament was beaten at an information stand in Nordhorn, Lower Saxony, on Saturday morning.