Threatened and beaten
Police identify suspects for attack on Green Party activists
April 29, 2024, 5:42 p.m
Two Green Party helpers hang up election posters for the party in Zwickau, Saxony – and are attacked. Now the police can identify the suspected perpetrator and are also targeting possible accomplices.
After an attack on election workers in Zwickau, the police have identified a 22-year-old man as a suspect. The Zwickau police department said he now has to answer for threats, coercion and theft. At the same time, it is being checked whether he was supported by three other people aged 20 and 21 who were picked up at the crime scene during the manhunt.
According to the police, two men (34 and 42 years old) were attacked in the Zwickau district of Schedwitz on Saturday night when they wanted to put up election posters for the Green Party. At first they were verbally attacked by four men.
“When the 34-year-old called the police emergency number, one of the men knocked the phone out of his hand, threatened to hit the two election workers and forced them to take down one of the posters, which they did. He then crushed several posters and took them then with him,” the police report says.
Also attacks elsewhere
In other places in Saxony and Brandenburg, people were also attacked while putting up election posters at the weekend. In Leipzig, a 25-year-old was attacked and injured by unknown people on Saturday night while putting up election posters for the Volt party. According to police, one of the unknown men initially made derogatory comments about several political parties. Shortly afterwards, there was reportedly a scuffle in which the 25-year-old was hit in the face. The police are investigating charges of assault against unknown persons.
In Brandenburg, two Left Party candidates in the local election campaign in Schöneiche in the Oder-Spree district were attacked by a group of young people while hanging up election posters. A drunk 14-year-old was arrested as the main suspect, a police spokesman said. “A slogan from the right-wing scene” was also used. The two local politicians were reportedly injured while running away. The federal chairman of the Left, Martin Schirdewan, condemned the attack and said that the authorities should investigate such incidents as a high priority and offer protection concepts for people who were involved in the election campaign.